Fidan stressed that Israel’s genocide in Gaza must end and all efforts should be exerted in a unified manner by all world countries to achieve this goal.
The Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, urged on Sunday the Islamic leaders to pressure an arms embargo on Israel, Anadolu news agency reported.
Addressing the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the joint Arab-Islamic Summit of Foreign Ministers meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Fidan said that Turkiye’s initiative at the United Nations – which aims to halt the provision of weapons to Israel – was supported by 52 countries, including permanent members of the UN Security Council.
The Turkish foreign minister noted that what is lacking is not the determination or moral ground for the Palestinian cause but rather tangible actions to stop Israel’s war in Gaza and Lebanon and to avoid a regional war in the Middle East.
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Fidan added that some of these concrete measures include halting trade with Israel and intervening in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ongoing genocide case.
He urged Islamic leaders to launch a campaign in support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Moreover, Fidan stressed that Israel’s genocide in Gaza must end and all efforts should be exerted in a unified manner by all world countries to achieve this goal.
He warned against Israel’s open intentions of changing the “historical status quo” of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, stressing that this threat is of concern not only to Palestinians but also to the entire Muslim world.
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Arms Embargo
Turkiye has recently led a coalition of over 50 countries to implement an arms embargo on Israel and pressure Tel Aviv to stop its bloodshed in Gaza and Lebanon,
Ankara sent a letter to the UN Security Council on November 1, to take prompt measures to stop the provision of weapons, ammunition, and military equipment to Israel if there is doubt that they are being used in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In that direction, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Tirana Hassan, said on November 8 that countries providing weapons to Israel despite evidence of violations of international law in Gaza and Lebanon are enabling “belligerents elsewhere”, the Reuters news agency reported.
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In her interview with Reuters, Hassan said that if Western governments “know that these weapons are being used in the commission of war crimes, then that should be enough for weapons sales and transfers to stop”.
Death Toll on the Rise
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 43,552 Palestinians have been killed, and 102,765 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7, 2023.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
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Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(PC, Anadolu)
