Erdogan Lashes Out at Blinken Over Sectarian Position
ANKARA (Dispatches) –
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hit out at the United States for exacerbating tensions between the Zionist regime and Palestine by sending an aircraft carrier to the region and using sectarian language.
“Of course, the U.S. sending aircraft carriers to the region unfortunately does not contribute to peace or reduce tensions between the parties,” Erdogan said during televised comments.
“U.S. Secretary of State [Antony Blinken] says ‘I approach Israel as a Jew, not as a secretary of state.’ What kind of approach is this? If, in response, the people tell you that they would approach the region as a Muslim, what would you say? You should approach people as humans.”
The Turkish president said that cutting off the electricity, water, fuel and food of two million people squeezed into 360 square kilometers in Gaza was a violation by the occupying regime of the most basic human rights.
“Wholesale punishment of the people of Gaza will only exacerbate the problem and cause more pain, more tension, and more tears,” Erdogan said.
He acknowledged that Turkey had sent a military plane carrying emergency aid, including food, water and medical supplies to Egypt’s El Arish airport, calling on the regime to permit the entrance of aid to Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
More than 1,500 people in besieged and densely populated Gaza have already been killed by waves of Zionist airstrikes that have leveled residential neighborhoods since Saturday.
Cause of Conflict ‘Injustice’ Against Palestinians
On a related note, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that the cause of the conflict was “historical injustice” against Palestinians, as he met with the EU’s foreign policy chief in Beijing.
“The root of this problem lies in the long delay in the realization of Palestine’s aspiration to establish an independent state, and in the fact that the historical injustice suffered by the Palestinian people has not been corrected,” Wang said after holding a meeting with Josep Borrell.
Jordan also said on Saturday any move by the Zionist regime to impose a new displacement of Palestinians would push the region to the “abyss” of a wider regional conflict.
Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi also said the occupying regime’s blocking of humanitarian aid to Gaza and forcing its residents to leave their homes as it escalates its military action were a “flagrant” breach of international law.