ISTANBUL: In major development, Turkiye on Friday announced its decision to severe all commercial and economic ties with Israel while also closing its airspace to Israeli planes, as Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip will set “the entire region ablaze”.
“Atrocities committed in Gaza have been recorded as one of the darkest chapters in human history,” Fidan said and added that Palestinians’ resistance would shift the “course of history, become a symbol for the oppressed”.
He also cited the actions taken by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu-led far-right government against the territorial integrity of Syria as the reason.
In his speech in the parliament, Fidan said Israel was deliberately making Gaza uninhabitable to force its people to leave — a reference to the plans to relocate the Palestinians from Gaza as part of the ongoing genocide.
At the same time, Fidan said Israel opposed the emergence of a “new and strong Syria”, but promised that Turkiye would not allow such a policy to continue.
It’s a developing story. Details to follow