ANKARA (Dispatches) – Turkey will ask the UN Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to verify the Zionist regime’s possession of nuclear weapons, the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
“We will put forward initiatives both in the UN Security Council and in the IAEA on the issue that threatens the security of the region, especially Turkey,” the Star newspaper quoted the Turkish leader as saying at an economic forum in Algeria, TASS reported.
Erdogan earlier spoke about the need to verify the presence of nuclear weapons in the occupied territories and the intention to initiate the relevant process in international structures, including after the June 20 government meeting. The Turkish president pointed out that the occupying regime openly recognizes that it possesses nuclear weapons, but international structures, particularly the IAEA and the UN, do not conduct a corresponding investigation.
Erdogan also told the forum that Turkey would make efforts to rebuild Gaza and seek to hold the Zionist regime criminally responsible for crimes committed in the Palestinian enclave.
Meanwhile, he said the Western countries that have taken the Israeli regime’s side in its conflict with Palestine should refrain from participating in its crimes.
“Before it’s too late, the governments of the countries that have sided with Israel should move to the side of international law, human rights, conscience and morality, and refrain from participating in these crimes. We need to side with those oppressed and save them from the steps that oppressors are taking,” the Turkish leader told reporters upon return from Algeria.
The Western public is unable to stand this test as it is on the wrong side of history, he said, adding, “This time, it’s different.”
“As you know, the governments of these countries preferred to stand aside but their people are now saying: ‘Enough of these atrocities.’ ... The politicians who are deaf to this voice will soon get a democratic response from their own people,” TASS quoted Erdogan as saying.