Turkey’s Erdogan urges UN to endorse use of force against Israel

ANKARA — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that the United Nations General Assembly should recommend use of force if the UN Security Council fails to stop Israel’s attacks against terror groups in Gaza and Lebanon.

NATO member Turkey has denounced Israel’s devastating attack in Gaza against Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and condemned its recent attacks in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah terrorists. It has halted all trade with Israel and applied to join a case at the World Court accusing it of genocide, which the Jewish state rejects.

“The UN General Assembly should rapidly implement the authority to recommend the use of force, as it did with the 1950 Uniting for Peace resolution, if the Security Council can’t show the necessary will,” Erdogan said after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.

The resolution says the UN General Assembly can step in if disagreements among the Security Council’s five permanent veto-wielding powers — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — mean they fail to maintain international peace.

The Security Council is the only UN body that can normally make legally binding decisions, such as authorizing the use of force and imposing sanctions.

Erdogan also said he was sad to see Muslim countries failing to take a more active stance against Israel, urging them to take economic, diplomatic, and political measures against Israel to pressure it into accepting a ceasefire.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati speaks during a meeting of the Security Council, September 25, 2024, at UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

“For the peace of everyone in our region, from Muslim to Jew to Christian, we call on the international community and Muslim world to mobilize,” Erdogan said, claiming Israel’s attacks would target other Muslim countries if it is not stopped soon.

Israel’s escalated attacks against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in recent weeks come after a year of near-daily rocket and drone attacks from the terrorist organization toward northern Israel, which have forced tens of thousands of residents to evacuate.

The recent airstrikes have killed the vast majority of Hezbollah’s top leadership including the organization’s leader Hassan Nasrallah over the weekend.

Since Hamas’s October 7 massacres in southern Israel Erdogan has often lashed out at the nation for its conduct in the war, accusing it repeatedly of genocide and comparing it to Nazi Germany, while referring to Hamas as freedom fighters and hosting its leaders in Ankara.