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Turkey's Erdogan says to raise Gaza violence at U.N. General Assembly

18 May 2018 22:12 (UTC +04:00)

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he would raise the violence in Gaza at the United Nations General Assembly, after dozens of Palestinian protesters were killed by Israeli security forces this week.

A vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, Erdogan castigated both Washington and the United Nations for the violence that followed the embassy’s opening.

Erdogan has described Israel as “terrorist state” and accused it of using Nazi-like methods. Turkey declared three days of mourning following the Gaza events and Erdogan called for an extraordinary summit of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

“Israel must certainly be held accountable for the innocent people it has massacred in front of international law. We will follow this issue in the United Nations General Assembly as well,” he said in his opening speech at the summit in Istanbul.

“Unfortunately, any step taken towards justice is being blocked by the U.S. leadership in the Security Council.