Israel must be prevented from plunging region into war: Erdogan
The Turkish president says Israel must be prevented from “plunging the whole region into war,” warning the West against widespread support for the regime.
Erdogan, speaking in a press conference in Ankara along with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, said some states continue to provide “unconditional support to Israel”.
“In this fashion, they are accessories to Israel’s crimes,” Al Jazeera quoted Erdogan as saying. “They are accomplices to their crimes in the massacres and pogroms perpetrated against the civilian population of Gaza.”
Erdogan said the Israeli regime, in addition to dropping thousands of tonnes of bombs on civilians, has continued to conduct a starvation war on Gaza.
“Each and every Palestinian citizen or child who dies of starvation remains the responsibility of Israel, and those backing Israel,” Erdogan said.
The Egyptian president said the situation in Gaza was an “unprecedented catastrophe.”
Sisi also called for "a stop to the escalation in the West Bank", where Israel has been leading a deadly campaign since last week.
“I reiterate the joint stand of Egypt and Turkey calling for an immediate ceasefire, rejecting further escalation by Israel in the occupied West Bank, and taking tangible measures to live up to the aspiration of the Palestinian people for the establishment of an independent state based on 1967 borders with [occupied] East Al-Quds as its capital,” he said.
In the meeting in Ankara, which was held during the first such visit by an Egyptian leader in years, the two sides said they wanted to deepen cooperation.
"We will strengthen our cooperation in all areas," said Erdogan, who visited Sisi in Cairo in mid-February, when the two leaders said they had turned over a "new leaf" in bilateral ties.
Ankara and Cairo cut ties in 2013 after Sisi, then defense minister, ousted President Mohamed Morsi, an ally of Turkey and a Muslim Brotherhood figure.
On Wednesday, the two leaders signed 17 cooperation agreements, according to the Turkish presidency.
"We want to improve our cooperation with Egypt in the domain of energy, especially natural gas and nuclear power," Erdogan said.
Despite a decade of estrangement, trade between the two countries never ceased: Turkey is Egypt's 5th largest trading partner. Egypt is Turkey's largest in Africa.
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