Erdogan urges UN to recommend use of force if Security Council fails to stop Israel

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that the United Nations General Assembly should recommend the use of force, in line with a resolution adopted in 1950, if the U.N. Security Council fails to stop the use of force. strength.Israelmilitary operations in Gaza and Lebanon.

Turkey, a NATO member, denouncedIsraelin Gaza against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, and condemned its recent attacks in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah terrorists.

“The United Nations General Assembly should promptly implement its authority to recommend the use of force, as it did with the 1950 Unite for Peace resolution, if the Security Council cannot show the necessary will,” Erdogan said after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.

The resolution says the United Nations General Assembly can intervene if disagreements arise between the Security Council's five veto-wielding permanent powers, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. United, prevent them from maintaining international peace.

The Security Council is the only UN body that can normally make legally binding decisions, such as authorizing the use of force and imposing sanctions.

Erdogan also said he was sad to see Muslim countries failing to take a more active stance againstIsraelurging them to take economic, diplomatic and political measures againstIsraelto pressure him into agreeing to a ceasefire.

“For the peace of all in our region, from Muslims to Jews to Christians, we call on the international community and the Muslim world to mobilize,” Erdogan said. IsraelIran's attacks would also target Muslim countries if not stopped quickly.

Turkey has been one of the staunchest critics of Israel and defenders of Hamas since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October.

Last month, Erdogan declared August 2 a day of national mourning following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The announcement comes days after Erdogan explicitly threatened to invade Israel, leading Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz to call on NATO to expel Turkey, which has the second-largest army in the country. 'alliance.

Turkey has reportedly blocked NATO-Israel cooperation since October over the Hamas-led war in Gaza and said the alliance should not engage with Israel as a partner until the end of the conflict.

Erdogan's comments are the latest in a recent wave of hostile measures targeting the Jewish state.

Earlier this year, for example, the Turkish Foreign Ministry compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

In May, Turkey's Commerce Ministry said it had stopped all exports and imports to and from Israel. The announcement comes after Turkey imposed trade restrictions on Israeli exports due to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, following the terrorist group's October 7 invasion and massacre of the southern region. of the Jewish state.

This followed Erdogan's threat in March to “send Netanyahu to Allah to take care of him, make him unhappy and curse him.” He previously accused Israel of operating “Nazi” concentration camps and compared Netanyahu to Hitler.

Weeks earlier, Erdogan said Netanyahu was a “butcher” who would be tried as a “war criminal” for Israel's defensive military operations in Gaza. He also called Israel a “terrorist state.”

Turkey hosts senior Hamas officials and, along with Iran and Qatar, has provided much of the Palestinian terror group's budget.

Several Western and Arab states designate Hamas, an offshoot of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, as a terrorist group.

However, Erdogan defended the Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters” against what he described as an Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

Israel withdrew all its troops and civilian settlers from Gaza in 2005.

Turkish-Israeli diplomatic relations have deteriorated since the Hamas atrocities of October 7, when the terrorist group that rules Gaza murdered 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapped more than 250 others as hostages, triggering the ongoing war in the Palestinian enclave.

In an interview published last month, Turkey's ambassador to Iran, Hicabi Krlang, blasted Israel as “one of the most ruthless enemies” and condemned Western countries for supporting the Jewish state. . He also said Iran's plan to attack Israel in retaliation for Haniyeh's assassination in Tehran in July should be severe enough to force the Jewish state to “fall to its knees.”

Iran supports both Hamas and Hezbollah, providing Islamist terrorist groups with weapons and training funding.