Iran to Turkey: ‘Maximum efforts’ needed to stop Gaza genocide, provide aid
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, called for “maximum efforts” to end the Israeli regime’s genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Amir-Abdollahian said diplomatic initiatives and immediate provision of aid to the people of Gaza are needed to assuage the pain inflicted by the Israeli regime’s war on the besieged territory.
It came after Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani said President Ebrahim Raeisi’s trip to Turkey was canceled a few days ago.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, Kan’ani said the meeting had once been postponed and was set to be held after the participation of the Iranian and Turkish delegations in a UN Security Council meeting in New York, but the Iranian delegation did not make the trip because of a delay in the issuance of Amir-Abdollahian’s entry visa.
He also hailed the “constructive” relations between Iran and Turkey, but at the same time, said the Palestinian people expect Muslim countries to use all their capacities against the Israeli regime.
Kan’ani said, “It is expected that some regional and Muslim countries use their deterrent power in their relations with Israel to support Palestinians. It is a moral and humane expectation, and the desire of the Palestinian people.”
During his phone conversation, Amir-Abdollahian stressed the importance of strengthening ties between Tehran and Ankara as well as the upcoming meeting between the two countries’ presidents.
He also said Iran considers Washington’s all-out support for Israel as the reason behind the continuation of the occupying regime’s atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
For his part, Fidan appreciated Iran’s diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, emphasizing that Palestine is the central issue of the Muslim world.
The two ministers also stressed the need to intensify diplomatic efforts that aim to exert pressure on the Israeli regime to accept the ceasefire calls and stop its war on Gaza.
Israel waged the brutal war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 18,205 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 49,645 others.
Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under the rubble in Gaza, which is under “complete siege” by Israel.
