Istanbul: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned a “new Sykes-Picot order” on Saturday in the Middle East and called for stronger solidarity among Islamic nations to counter Israeli actions and regional destabilization.
“We will not authorize the creation of a new Sykes-Picot order in our region with borders in the blood,” said Erdogan at the 51st session of the Council of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Cooperation Organization (OIC) in Istanbul.
He described the conditions in Gaza as worse than those of the Nazi concentration camps, noting that “2 million of our sisters and brothers in Gaza have trouble surviving in these conditions for 21 months”.
Erdogan expressed confidence in the resilience of the Iranian people in the middle of the current conflict. “We do not doubt that the Iranian people, with their solidarity in the face of difficulties and a solid state experience, hope, overcome these days,” he said.
He also urged Islamic countries to remain firmly against Israel’s actions beyond Gaza. “We have to show greater solidarity to stop acts of Israeli banditry not only in Palestine, but also in Syria, Lebanon and Iran,” added Erdogan.
Welcoming the reintegration of Syria into the OIC, he underlined: “Syria needs the support of all of us, the whole Islamic world, to protect its territorial integrity, its national unity and to achieve lasting stability.
Erdogan’s remarks took place in the midst of growing calls to Islamic cooperation in response to climbing conflicts in the region.
The special session of the 51st Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs should focus on the recent strikes of Israel against Iran, including Thursday’s attack on the Khondab nuclear site in Arak.
The Israeli army said it was targeting a heavy water reactor partially built on the site, which, according to experts, could produce weapon quality plutonium.
The organization of Islamic cooperation, which includes 57 Member States, has long been a political and diplomatic forum for Muslim countries.
The Israeli-Iranian conflict continued to intensify, missile exchanges and aerial aggressions increasing more because diplomatic efforts in Geneva have not produced a ceasefire. Iran reported on Saturday 430 dead and 3,500 injured since June 13, while Israel confirmed 24 deaths and more than 800 injuries.
Iran has launched drone and missile strikes targeting Ben Gurion airport and Israeli military sites, claiming the success of hitting several targets. In response, Israel announced the murder of a senior commander of the IRGC QUDS Force in Qom.
Meanwhile, the UN Iranian envoy filed an official complaint against the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grosi, accusing him of bias and non-condamnation of Israeli strikes on protected nuclear sites.
The American intelligence community remains divided on Iran’s nuclear capacities, criticisms establishing parallels with the erroneous intelligence that justified war in Iraq.
Despite global concerns, including the warnings of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the risk of the Second World War, the de -escalation prospects remain uncertain.
While Israel has launched attacks on Iran under the pretext of the Tehran nuclear weapons program, the American intelligence community, for its part, remains divided on the status of nuclear capacities of Iran. Despite public statements, some reports suggest that Iran would take up to three years to build a nuclear warhead.
Many criticisms have argued that the pretext of nuclear weapons reflects the erroneous intelligence which led to the war in Iraq, making fear that history is repeated.
The war in Iraq, launched on false allegations of weapons of mass destruction, triggered decades of bloodshed and regional instability which still haunt the region today.
Similar to the war in Iraq, other regime change campaigns led by the United States in Syria and Libya have aroused many violence, fueled the rise of terrorism, caused the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and left a deep instability which continues to have an impact on the region.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, called on all the parties to “give peace a chance”.
