President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday will join fellow NATO leaders at a critical summit in The Hague as the Israel-Iran conflict looms over the meeting.
“Tomorrow I am traveling to The Hague to attend to NATO summit. We have mobilized all means to prevent irreparable pains,” he said Monday at an event in Ankara, referring to Israel’s attacks against Iran, which have killed more than 400 people in the past 11 days.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday dismissed suggestions that the war in the Middle East would deflect attention from the summit of the 32 NATO leaders starting on Tuesday.
He stressed that Tehran should not be allowed to have a nuclear bomb, as Israel and Iran exchanged fresh strikes.
"When it comes to NATO's stance on Iran's nuclear program, (the) allies have long agreed that Iran must not develop a nuclear weapon," said Rutte ahead of a NATO summit in The Hague.
Rutte also noted that Iran was "heavily involved" in Russia's war against Ukraine.
"Iranian drones are killing innocent Ukrainians every day in cities, in communities without any respect for life," said Rutte.
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump claimed U.S. warplanes had used "bunker buster" bombs that had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear capabilities.
Other officials said it was too soon to assess the true impact on Iran's nuclear program, which Israel and some Western states consider an existential threat.
Iran has warned that the U.S. bombing would "pave the way for the extension of war in the region" and threatened "serious, unpredictable consequences."
As the world awaited Iran's response, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the bombing campaign Israel launched on June 13 "a big mistake."
