Turkey rejects Israel’s security justification and calls for ceasefire amid Gaza invasion
Turkey rejects Israel’s justification of its invasion of Gaza on security grounds, its Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in Jordan, as the two countries agreed to take a tough stance against Israeli actions in the war.
Jordan and Turkey sought an immediate ceasefire during talks on Thursday.
“It is not acceptable at all for Israel to justify its attacks on Palestine on security grounds,” Mr Fidan said after meeting Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.
“What Israel is doing … is nothing but expansion and occupation. It is not Israel’s security that is being threatened. Those who are threatened are the Palestinians and the [other] countries in the region.”
Any solution to the war that addresses “solely Israel’s security [demands] and ignores the security threat that the Palestinians face [will] bring war, not peace to the region”, Mr Fidan said.
Israel said it wanted to eliminate Hamas after the militant group attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 240. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government responded with air strikes and a land invasion of the Palestinian enclave that have killed more than 24,600 people, Palestinian health officials said.
Mr Fidan will also meet King Abdullah II during a two-day visit to Amman and discuss “the situation in Palestine”, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Since October 7, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described Israel several times as a “terror state” and defended Hamas as “liberators” while Jordanian officials have warned that extremists in Israel could cause the war to spread across the region.
But the two countries have differed on other issues.
In recent years, Jordan has supported diplomatic moves by Greece and Cyprus to counter what the two Mediterranean countries regard as threatening actions by Turkey off their shores.
In 2021, as relations between Turkey and the US deteriorated, Jordan signed a military pact with Washington, enhancing the kingdom’s position as a base for US troops.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited both countries during a tour of the region last week. Regional sources said Mr Blinken sought to secure financial support from Gulf states for the reconstruction of Gaza and discussed the possible participation of Turkey in a multinational force to be sent to the Palestinian enclave after the war.
On Thursday, Mr Safadi repeated Jordan’s calls for Israel to allow hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza to return to their homes.
Earlier this week, he said any postwar plans for Gaza must be based on “rejection of any security role for Israel in Gaza or any Israeli presence” in the area.
He said any approaches to shape the future of Gaza must be preceded by international pressure to stop Israel’s attacks on the enclave.