UPDATE - Israel's dangerous flirting with war with Lebanon risks spreading conflict, warns Turkish foreign minister

ADDS REMARKS BY TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER

By Can Efesoy, Tugba Altun and Aynur Seyma Asan

Israel's dangerous flirtation over starting a war with Lebanon risks spreading the Gaza conflict to the wider region, warned Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday.

"I think Israelis are barely restraining themselves from going to war with Lebanon. But I always say that this road is a dead end. If something like that happens, of course this war will have no end," Fidan said hours after Israel's assassination of Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon, suggesting that any more such developments could make the war spread.

"On the contrary, if the (Palestine) issue is to be resolved, it is necessary to focus on peace and a two-state solution," Fidan told reporters at the Foreign Ministry in the capital Ankara.

On the Tuesday night assassination, which drew widespread condemnation though Israel has denied responsibility, Fidan said: "How will Hezbollah react to this? In other words, will it react by entering the war completely or by retaliating?"

On Tuesday evening, an Israeli drone assassinated Hamas’ deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri in the Lebanese capital Beirut along with two commanders of its military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades.

Arouri was the most senior Hamas leader to have been killed by Israel since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on Oct. 7.

Regarding developments in Gaza, Fidan said: "The international community's failure to make any effort to prevent this process has been a serious breaking moment for the system."

He stressed that he believes as the balance of power in the region begin to change, political attitudes would also change and it was also true for countries in the region that were supposed to be the closest friends of the US and Israel.

The unconditional support of the US or Western countries for Israel is a serious problem, said Fidan.

While the US is fighting on behalf of Israel, countries in the region will want to develop counter-force, he said.

"I think those who do not want to see similar massacres in Gaza may engage in a significant armament and power-seeking effort from now on."

"The developments in Gaza have caused the West and Europeans to lose all their reputations, all the credits they had accumulated.

"They have spent all their credits in the eyes of humanity, especially in the eyes of our generations. It will not be easy for them to regain it," he said.

Fidan described the West's stance on the Gaza issue as "hypocrisy," in contrast to its stance on the Russia-Ukraine War.

The West ignored principles, virtues and morals, and that he saw that all of this was paving the way for a major geostrategic rupture, said Fidan.

- Contact Group

Fidan underlined that this was the first time that countries in the region and the Islamic world had formed a Contact Group on the Gaza issue.

Pointing out the importance of systematically putting pressure on certain places and producing arguments together, Fidan said being together and maintaining the same position ensured unity of discourse.

Emphasizing that they had put into circulation and put into action the thesis that acting together would be more effective, Fidan said the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held a summit for the first time and proposals were accepted in the final declaration of the summit.

"The incident is naturally a military incident. There is of course no possibility to use force in the region, where the US and West unconditionally supports Israel," Fidan said.

"Therefore, we need to focus on different techniques when approaching this issue. I think that especially the countries of the region have learnt important lessons here."

“More importantly, Russia and China are in a different positioning here, in other words, it is necessary to see that the competition in the region has evolved to a different place,” Fidan said, adding that the Islamic world have a lot to do.

Pointing out that everything in the region seems to be directly related to the Palestinian issue and the massacre in Gaza, Fidan said the spread of the war is a serious danger.

The danger has been explained to Western and Eastern societies, the Turkish foreign minister said.

"Sometimes they say: ‘Why is Türkiye taking such a tough stance?’ I say that there is an elected leader in Türkiye. He has to interpret the feelings of the society. People want to see that the state and politics reflect their own thoughts,” he said.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7.

At least 22,185 Palestinians have since been killed and 57,035 others injured, according to Gaza’s health authorities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.