ANKARA: Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday condemned Israel’s ground operation in Lebanon and urged the United Nations and other international organizations to stop Israel without “wasting any more time.”
“Whatever it does, Israel will be stopped sooner or later,” Erdogan told the Turkish parliament at the opening of the legislative year.
“All state and international organizations, especially the UN, must stop Israel without wasting any more time,” he said.
The Israeli army said that it launched a ground offensive in Lebanon and that its forces engaged in clashes Tuesday, escalating the conflict after a week of intense air strikes that killed hundreds.
Erdogan said “the terror and genocide” Israel had carried out in Gaza had reached Lebanon and warned if not stopped, the Israeli leadership would set its sights on Turkiye.
“I openly say that the Israeli leadership, acting with the delirium of the promised land and with a purely religious fanaticism, will set its sights on our homeland after Palestine and Lebanon,” Erdogan said, again comparing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler.
“Just as Hitler, who saw himself in a giant mirror, was stopped, Netanyahu will be stopped in the same way,” he said.
Turkiye’s foreign ministry said it had drawn up contingency plans to evacuate its citizens from Lebanon because “the security situation is likely to deteriorate.”
“In coordination with relevant institutions, alternative plans have been prepared for the evacuation of our citizens by sea or air from Lebanon,” the ministry said.
Turkiye is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon.
The ministry also said guidelines for the evacuation of third countries’ citizens via Turkiye have also been determined, adding that necessary preparations were underway in cooperation with nearly 20 countries that have requested support.
Erdogan says Israel will be stopped ‘sooner or later’
https://arab.news/6vbf8
Erdogan says Israel will be stopped ‘sooner or later’
- “Whatever it does, Israel will be stopped sooner or later,” Erdogan told the Turkish parliament
- “All state and international organizations, especially the UN, must stop Israel without wasting any more time“
Six dead in separatist attacks in southeast Iran
- Local head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps among victims of militant group
RIYADH: Six people including a local head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed on Tuesday in gun attacks by militant separatists in Iran’s restive southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan.
Town council chief Parviz Kadkhodaei and two volunteer members of the Guards were also among the dead in the first attack at a school ceremony in the small town of Bent, about 1,350 kilometers southeast of Tehran. Two police officers were killed in the second attack in the town of Khash.
Both attacks were carried out by gunmen from Jaish Al-Adl, a militant group based in Pakistan that seeks greater rights for the ethnic Baloch minority.
Sistan-Baluchistan, one of Iran’s poorest regions, is mostly inhabited by the Baloch community. The province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan has long been plagued by unrest involving drug-smuggling gangs, rebels from the Baluchi minority and militants.
In September, gunmen from Jaish Al-Adl killed four border guards in the province in two separate attacks.
In January Iran carried out a missile and drone strike against militant groups in Pakistan. Pakistan retaliated with strikes against militants in Iranian territory.
Pakistan’s Balochistan province also suffers from low-level insurgency waged by separatist militants against the government of Pakistan. These Pakistani Baloch separatist militant groups are allied with Iranian Baloch groups. Iran and Pakistan historically have a strategic alliance fighting these groups.
Prayers and applause: two sides of Jerusalem react to Iran missiles
JERUSALEM: Depending on where you were in Jerusalem on Tuesday night, Iran’s missile attack on Israel provoked either fervent prayers or cries of joy.
Jewish prayers in an underground car park in west Jerusalem; expressions of joy in Palestinian districts in the Israeli-annexed east of the city.
When the air raid sirens wailed, hundreds of people in the central bus station in the west heeded the military’s calls and headed underground to take shelter.
Some of those who gathered in the car park read from religious texts as others stayed glued to their phones.
The dull sound of explosions came from above as Israeli air defenses intercepted incoming missiles fired from Iran.
Outside in the open, the dark sky was streaked with light trails from the east, amid the boom of blasts echoing over the Holy City.
In a shelter in Musrara district in west Jerusalem, residents called friends and relatives elsewhere in Israel to exchange news of what was happening.
One man who preferred not to be identified by name told AFP: “We can put things into perspective, but the kids can’t.”
He gave out sweets to young ones in the car park, “so they don’t have bad memories” of the situation.
Children were crying, however, and families continued to arrive amid the wave of alerts.
Some even expressed surprise as they had not heard of the threat, despite repeated warnings broadcast by the authorities for more than an hour.
On the other side of Jerusalem is the Palestinian quarter of Silwan in the east of the city, which Israel seized in the 1967 war and later annexed.
One resident told AFP of the reaction in Silwan when the warnings sounded.
“As soon as the Palestinians heard the first sirens, there were whistles and applause, and there were cries of ‘Allahu Akbar!’ (God is Greatest),” said one resident of the moment the streaks of fire appeared in the night sky.
She said people did not go to shelters because they don’t have any. Instead they went out into the streets or onto roofs to see what was happening.
Back in west Jerusalem, after the all clear, 17-year-old Alon returned to his small DIY shop.
“It’s been six months since I’ve heard the alert in Jerusalem,” he said of the first time Israel’s arch-enemy Iran attacked with drones and missiles on the night of April 13-14.
“I wasn’t afraid,” he added.
Iran warns against any direct military intervention in support of Israel
TEHRAN: Iran’s armed forces warned Wednesday against any direct military intervention in support of Israel in response to Iran’s missile attack.
“In the event of direct intervention by countries supporting the regime (Israel)... their centers and interests in the region will also face a powerful attack by the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the armed forces said in a statement quoted by Fars news agency.
Israel’s Netanyahu says ‘whoever attacks us, we attack them’
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday called Iran’s massive missile attack on Israel “a big mistake” and vowed to make Tehran “pay for it.”
“Iran made a big mistake tonight and will pay for it,” said Netanyahu hours after the attack, and warned: “Whoever attacks us, we attack them.”
Iran calls on UN to prevent further escalation in Middle East tensions
- “Our defensive operation is in line with international law and the right to self defense ... we only targeted military and security facilities,” the foreign ministry said in its statement regarding the missile attack on Israel
DUBAI: Iran’s foreign ministry called on the United Nations Security Council to take “meaningful action” to prevent threats against regional peace and security, after Tehran launched a salvo of missiles against Israel on Tuesday.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said the assault was in retaliation for recent Israeli killings of militant leaders and aggression in Gaza and Lebanon. Lebanese Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah and Revolutionary Guards deputy Commander Abbas Nilforoushan were killed in Beirut last week.
“Our defensive operation is in line with international law and the right to self defense ... we only targeted military and security facilities,” the foreign ministry said in its statement regarding the missile attack on Israel.
In an earlier post on X, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran’s action was “in defense of Iranian interests and citizens,” adding that his country was not looking for war but would “firmly stand against any threat.”
