ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday warned against a “devastating war” between Israel and Iran that could trigger a refugee crisis, in a series of calls to regional leaders, his office said.
Erdogan told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian that Israel was seeking “to drag the whole region into the fire”, according to a statement from the Turkish presidency.
His conversations came as Israel and Iran escalated their deadly barrages of missiles and drones, raising fears of an intense war that could affect multiple countries around the Middle East.
To Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Erdogan said: “Our region cannot tolerate another crisis, and a devastating war could create waves of irregular migration towards all the countries in the region.”
Turkey already hosts millions of Syrians, who fled their civil war, as well as Iranians seeking lives away from their country’s authoritarian rulers. The influx has created political tensions in Turkey.
Erdogan told Saudi Arabia’s prince that Israel needed “to be stopped”, calling it “the main threat to stability and security in the region”, the statement from his office said.
The issue of Iran’s nuclear programme “can only be resolved through negotiations”, he added.
“The fact that the international community has closed its eyes to the occupation and genocide in Palestine has led Israel to this level of flouting the law and its aggression,” Erdogan was quoted as saying.
Erdogan also spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
And later Saturday, his office said he had also spoken by phone with US President Donald Trump, to back continued talks between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he also spoke with Erdogan, and the two agreed that “Israel’s unprovoked aggression against Iran” was “a blatant violation of international law and a threat to regional peace”.
Israel on Friday launched an unprecedented attack on Iran, killing top army commanders, nuclear scientists and other senior officials, in a missile barrage that Tehran said claimed 78 lives.
In response, Iran launched drones and missiles at Israel, killing three people and wounding more than 70 others.
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