The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on allies to mount pressure on the United States to stop Israel’s offensive in Gaza, however, he pointed out that there would be no agreement unless Washington accepted the enclave as Palestinian land.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Erdogan just returned from a summit on Saturday of Arab and Muslim leaders in the Saudi capital Riyadh, which condemned in strong terms the “barbaric actions” of Israeli forces’ in Gaza without approving concrete punitive measures.
He is due to visit Germany on Friday and plans to travel to Egypt and host Iran’s president in the coming weeks.
“We should hold talks with Egypt and the Gulf countries, and pressure the United States,” Erdogan told Turkish reporters on board his return flight from Riyadh.
“The US should increase its pressure on Israel. The West should increase pressure on Israel… It’s vital for us to secure a ceasefire,” he said.
Erdogan, who was on a trip to a northeastern Turkish village when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Ankara on November 5, did not rule out a meeting with President Joe Biden.
Read Also: Netanyahu ‘No Longer Someone We Can Talk To’ – Erdogan
‘The most important country that needs to be involved is the United States, which has influence on Israel,’ Erdogan said.
But he said he would not call Biden.
Blinken ‘has just been here (in Turkey). I guess Biden will host us from now on. It would not be suitable for me to call Biden,’ he said.
Erdogan said the US must accept Gaza as Palestinian land.
‘We cannot agree with Biden if he approaches (the conflict) by seeing Gaza as the land of occupying settlers or Israel, rather than the land of the Palestinian people,’ he said.
Turkey has been an increasingly vocal critic of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which was triggered after Hamas militants staged an October 7 attack into Israel which killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to the most recent Israeli figures.
Israel’s relentless campaign in response has killed more than 11,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to the latest figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.