How can UN protect others when it cannot defend its own staff?: Erdogan

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has questioned the credibility of the United Nations, arguing that it cannot effectively champion the rights of others if it fails to safeguard its own staff. His remarks came in response to recent Israeli strikes targeting UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.

"We have followed with embarrassment as the UN Security Council and international organisations have been completely powerless in the face of Israel's impudence," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the Global Diplomacy and Future of Palestine conference in Ankara on Tuesday.

"How much longer will the UN Security Council stand by and watch our region turn into a sea of blood, with civilians in Gaza being burned alive?" he stated.

"We witnessed how the human rights organisations and global media outlets have played the role of three monkeys when it comes to the killling of innocent children in Gaza," he added.

Erdogan also said that Palestinians have been enduring this oppression for decades while Israel has perpetuated its policies of occupation, destruction and execution uninterrupted for 76 years.

"We can predict where this expansionism will lead if Israel, which is becoming increasingly arrogant and aggressive, is not stopped," he added.

Israel's occupation of Lebanon

Israel has mounted massive air strikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since September 23, killing at least 1,400 people, injuring over 4000 others, and displacing more than 1.34 million people. It also began a ground invasion earlier this month.

The invasion is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, in which Israel has killed more than 42,000 people, mostly women and children.