Leading Turkish official Fuat Oktay this week called for the dismantling of Israel’s alleged nuclear weapons stockpile. The head of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee said Israel’s nuclear capability should be “eliminated as soon as possible”.
Addressing the committee on Wednesday, he said Israel had launched a war on Iran over the latter’s nuclear ambitions, while itself maintaining a significant - albeit undeclared - nuclear arsenal.
For decades, Israel has pursued a policy it describes as “strategic ambiguity,” neither confirming nor denying the existence of a nuclear weapons programme.
Israeli officials say this policy provides a credible deterrent and contributes to regional stability. Successive governments have maintained that Israel would not be the first state in the region to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.
Addressing the Foreign Affairs Committee, Oktay also warned that the Israeli-U.S. war on Iran - now in its second month - had expanded beyond its initial scope, affecting Iraq, Lebanon and the Arab Gulf states.
He said the ongoing partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz had disrupted trade and energy transit, adversely affecting the global economy.
“Although it is Israel’s war, the entire world is paying the price,” he said, adding that Israeli-U.S. military strikes on Iran lacked legitimacy under international law.
While Oktay acknowledged Tehran’s right to self-defence, he also criticised Iranian strikes on civilian infrastructure in neighbouring states, describing them as “unacceptable.”
Addressing lawmakers on the same day, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also criticised Israel, describing it as the “main party” behind what he called an “unlawful war”.
He said the ongoing conflict - and Israel’s leading role in it - “has not only turned our region into a burning ground, but also placed an economic burden on all humanity”.
Türkiye, Erdoğan added, is “determined to stay away from this fire.”
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Saudi civil defence sent an all-clear on Saturday after issuing alerts for a second time for potential danger in Riyadh and the city of Al-Kharj east of the capital, amid an uptick in attacks by Iran-aligned Houthis on the Gulf country.
Houthi attacks target Riyadh amid concerns over Saudi oil supplies, as Iran says it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until its conditions are met and U.S. commitments are implemented, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday.
The U.S. State Department approved a $2.7 billion military sale to Ukraine for air-defence development upgrades, along with related equipment and services, the department said. Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities reported at least 10 people had died in Russian attacks over the last 24 hours.
The death toll from an overnight Russian attack on the Kyiv region rose to four, including three children, Kyiv regional authorities said on Sunday. A mother and her two 3-year-old children were killed when a Russian drone strike hit a private home, the emergency service said.
Russian authorities have reported attacks on voting systems and communication lines as the country’s parliamentary election entered its second day on Saturday (19 September).
A group of French nationals, suspected of belonging to the Islamic State (IS), on trial in Iraq could face execution, a member of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council told a hearing in Baghdad on Sunday.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has cleared the criminal record of former soldier Elor Azaria, who was convicted of manslaughter for shooting dead a wounded Palestinian in the West Bank in 2016.
Saudi civil defence sent an all-clear on Saturday after issuing alerts for a second time for potential danger in Riyadh and the city of Al-Kharj east of the capital, amid an uptick in attacks by Iran-aligned Houthis on the Gulf country.
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The death toll in a suicide attack at a police compound in northwest Pakistan has reached 31, AFP reported on Saturday, citing a police official.
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