President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday accused Western nations of backing Israeli “plans to spread the war” into Lebanon, after fresh Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon.
"Israel is now setting its sights on Lebanon and we see that Western powers behind the scenes are patting Israel on the back and even supporting them," Erdoğan told a parliamentary meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Ankara.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Netanyahu's plans to spread the war to the region will lead to a great disaster," he said.
"It is extremely dire, pathetic that states, which talk about freedom, human rights and justice, are held captive by a madman like Netanyahu,” Erdoğan added.
He said Türkiye stands with Lebanon and calls on regional actors to support Beirut.
The fallout from Israel's war on Gaza is regularly felt on the Israel-Lebanon frontier, where deadly cross-border exchanges have escalated between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters.
Erdoğan went on to argue that pictures of starving children in the Gaza Strip are “a blight of shame for the modern world” and hit out at fellow Muslim countries, saying, “This will also be remembered as a symbol of the Muslim world’s impotence.”
Condemning Israel’s continued attacks during the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, Erdoğan said he remembers 38,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli “barbarity” with “God’s compassion.”
There has been no sign of let-up in the Israeli onslaught as efforts by international mediators, backed by the U.S., have failed to persuade Israel to agree to a cease-fire, while Hamas insists on an end to the war.
Israel, flouting a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
Nearly 37,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 86,200 others injured, according to local health authorities.
More than eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
Israel's top ally the United States warned it of the risk of a major conflict against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon following an escalation in cross-border fire.
"Another war between Israel and Hezbollah could easily become a regional war, with terrible consequences for the Middle East," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told his visiting Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant.
Top Israeli officials including Netanyahu have suggested they were open to a diplomatic resolution of the border tensions, though Gallant said Israel should be ready for "every possible scenario."
Türkiye has been a virulent critic of Israel, has hosted Hamas leaders and welcomes the Palestinian resistance group as a liberation movement, unlike the majority of the Western world.
Ankara has repeatedly called on the U.N. Security Council and the U.S., Israel’s biggest military provider, to exert pressure on Israel to accept a cease-fire proposal.
The Turkish president also remarked on domestic politics, wherein rumors have circulated in recent weeks over shifting alliances, notably in the AK Party-led People’s alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
“People’s Alliance stands firm and uniform and will remain so,” Erdoğan told his lawmakers. “Any attack on any member of the alliance is an attack on the whole of it, which we will not allow.”
Erdoğan also broached the “normalization” process launched with the main opposition’s Republican People's Party (CHP) after the March 31 local elections, in which the AK Party lost several strongholds.
Rumors have been swirling since then that the process may alienate the MHP, while MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli himself has pledged allegiance to the People’s Alliance, although he acknowledged that some people within the AK Party may be displeased with the MHP’s policies.
“This normalization effort is essentially an effort to normalize the opposition,” Erdoğan said. “It’s the opposition that will unclench its fist and fix its language. It’s the opposition that needs to soften.”
Referring to CHP leader Özgür Özel’s offer to ally with the MHP, Erdoğan said: “There can be a softening but no political alliance with the ruling party and the main opposition party. We have no such effort for it, either.”
As for the change he pledged within the AK Party after the local polls, Erdoğan said the party has made new appointments to seven provincial branches, notably cities where the AK Party saw declining voter support, and promised to deliver “other initiatives” as part of its action plan.
“We will realize the change our people expect of us,” he assured.
