Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said US President Joe Biden and his administration were complicit in what he called Israeli war crimes and violations of international law in the Gaza conflict, and called for sanctions against Israel.
In an interview with Newsweek during the NATO summit in Washington, Erdogan said Israel’s “brutal killing” of civilians, its attacks on hospitals, aid centers and other sites constituted war crimes.
“The US administration, however, disregards these violations and provides Israel with the utmost support. They do this at the expense of being complicit in these violations,” Erdogan said.
“At this point, who is going to impose what kind of sanctions against Israel for violating international law? That is the real question and no one is answering it,” he said.
Israel has consistently rejected accusations that it committed war crimes in its battle against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. And it denies deliberately targeting civilians.
More than 38,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the war began on October 7, according to Gaza medical officials. About 1,200 Israelis were killed in the Hamas onslaught that triggered the war.
NATO member Turkey has denounced Israel’s attack on Gaza, suspended trade relations with the country and expressed support for Hamas. Ankara has repeatedly criticized Western countries for supporting Israel and called for Israel to be punished by international courts.
Asked about Turkey’s cordial ties with Russia and China, and Ankara’s recent contacts with the BRICS group and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Erdogan said Turkey conducts its diplomacy with a “win-win” approach and therefore could not rule out engagement with non-Western entities.
“We are an unwavering NATO ally. However, we do not believe that this will impede our ability to establish positive relations with nations such as China and Russia,” Erdogan told Newsweek.
Source: CNN Brasil
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