Israel must give up expansionist ambitions: Turkish President Erdogan

Israel must give up its expansionist designs and embrace a two-state solution, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Tuesday, Erdogan said: "If Israel wants lasting peace, it must stop pursuing its expansionist ambitions and accept the existence of an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders."

"Israel, which regards itself as above international law, has not abandoned its policies of occupation, usurpation, destruction, and massacre for decades," the Turkish president said.

He also urged "conscientious" countries to support the UN agency for Palestinian refugees or UNRWA, hailing it as “a lifeline for 6 million refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine."

"We will never leave our Palestinian brothers abandoned, helpless, or alone," he added.

Two-day UAE visit

Erdogan arrived in the United Arab Emirates early Tuesday as part of a two-day visit to attend the summit.

He will address the three-day summit, with this year’s theme “Shaping Future Governments,” which is bringing together state and government officials and representatives of international organizations, the private sector, academia, civil society, think tanks, the media and businesspeople from various countries.

Israel's war on Gaza

Since a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, the Israeli offensive into Gaza has killed more than 28,000 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 % of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.