The Turkish President asserted that ‘victory will be Iran’s’ on Saturday, after Iran and Israel continued to trade fresh strikes overnight. Follow our live blog for the latest updates.
As the conflict between Israel and Iran enters its ninth consecutive day, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said he’s “optimistic that victory will be Iran’s” in a blistering speech at a gathering of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers in Istanbul.
Erdogan accused Israel of sabotaging the nuclear talks between Iran and the US — which were ongoing when Israel first launched strikes last Friday, June 13 — adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want to “resolve issues through diplomatic means.”
He urged the diplomats at the OIC meeting to increase pressure on Israel on the basis of international law and UN resolutions.
Erdogan’s harsh rhetoric comes days before he’s due to join a meeting of leaders of the NATO Alliance this week, including US President Donald Trump, who has dismissed a European-led effort to steer parties to the negotiating table.
“Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us,” Trump told reporters in New Jersey late on Friday. “Europe is not going to be able to help in this one.”
Meanwhile, Israel said its strikes had targeted Iran’s nuclear site in Isfahan, and that it had killed three senior commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar said in an interview published in Germany’s Bild newspaper on Saturday that Israel has already delayed Iran’s nuclear programme by “at least two or three years.”
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