Erdogan conveys Türkiye’s support to Lebanese PM in the face of Israeli attacks

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nayib Mikati on Wednesday, reiterating the Turkish authorities’ support for Lebanon in the face of recent attacks by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that have left more than 600 dead. “During the meeting, bilateral relations between Turkey and Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and Palestine and regional and global issues were discussed,” the Turkish Presidential Information Office said on its official profile on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter. The meeting between the two leaders took place on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly taking place these days in the American city of New York. At the meeting, Erdogan insisted that the international community should “urgently implement a solution that stops the Israeli aggression.” “President Erdogan has stated that Israel ignores basic human rights and commits genocide in front of the eyes of the world, and that it is a humanitarian duty to stop this and end the humanitarian crisis resulting from the attacks,” the Turkish Presidential Office said in a statement. Lebanon has been the scene of Israeli bombings in recent days against alleged positions of the Shiite militia party Hezbollah, which in solidarity with the Palestinian population has launched attacks against northern Israel for almost the last year. The war in the Gaza Strip broke out after the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) launched a series of attacks against Israel on October 7, in which almost 1,200 people were killed and another 240 were kidnapped. The IDF responded with a bloody military operation that has already left more than 41,500 Palestinians dead.