ISTANBUL: Turkey and Israel on Tuesday ordered envoys to leave in tit-for-tat moves and exchanged bitter accusations as a row over the Israeli army’s killing of dozens of Palestinians threatened a 2016 reconciliation deal.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hit back at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Twitter by calling Israel an “apartheid state” as Ankara ordered the Israeli ambassador to leave.
Eitan Naeh was summoned to the Turkish foreign ministry and told to “return to his country for a period of time,” said a foreign ministry official who asked not to be named.
Israel responded by ordering the Turkish consul in Jerusalem to leave for an unspecified period of time, its foreign ministry said.
Naeh had only been in his post since December 2016 after a reconciliation deal earlier that year ended a dispute over the May 2010 deadly storming of a Turkish ship by Israeli commandos that saw relations downgraded for more than half a decade.
That deal was strongly backed by the United States, which was keen to see Israel make up with one of its very few key Muslim country’s partners.
Turkey had already called back its ambassador to Tel Aviv — as well as its envoy to Washington — for consultations over the killing of 60 Palestinians by Israeli forces along the Gaza border on Monday.
Ankara has reacted with fury to the killings, which came on the same day as the US formally moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
Erdogan, currently on a visit to Britain, had on Monday stepped up his rhetoric, accusing Israel of “state terror” and “genocide” over the killings.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back at Erdogan, with a tweeted jibe in Hebrew that as a leading supporter of Palestinian group Hamas “there’s no doubt he’s an expert on terror and slaughter.”
Responding on Twitter in English, Erdogan said: “Netanyahu is the PM of an apartheid state that has occupied a defenseless people’s lands for 60+ yrs in violation of UN resolutions.”
“He has the blood of Palestinians on his hands and can’t cover up crimes by attacking Turkey,” he added.
After talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Erdogan warned that history “will not forgive” Israel or the US for moving the American embassy to Jerusalem in defiance of outrage in the world.
“America says ‘I am strong and so I am right’. No, you are not right,” Erdogan said.
Turkey began observing three days of national mourning on Tuesday declared by Erdogan for the Palestinian dead, with flags flying at half-mast and cultural events canceled.
Turkey, Israel exchange jibes, expulsions in escalating row over Gaza
Turkey, Israel exchange jibes, expulsions in escalating row over Gaza
Secrecy, mines and Israeli strikes complicate removal of Assad-era chemical weapons, says Syrian envoy
- Nevertheless, new authorities made significant progress in their work with Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, he tells UN Security Council
- Syrian authorities grant OPCW experts unrestricted access to 23 sites and since October have been hosting the organization’s longest continuous presence in the country
NEW YORK CITY: Syria’s envoy to the UN said on Thursday that secrecy surrounding the nation’s former chemical weapons program, security risks from land mines and other unexploded ordnance, and Israel’s targeting of suspected weapons sites continue to complicate his government’s efforts to eliminate Assad-era chemical weapons.
Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting about Syria’s chemical weapons, Ambassador Ibrahim Olabi said the nation’s new authorities had nevertheless made significant progress over the past year in their work with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Despite what he described as “major challenges,” Syria had moved the issue “from a stage of suspicion and manipulation to one of partnership with the OPCW,” he said, adding: “Syria has achieved a qualitative leap in its cooperation with the OPCW.”
This shift is reflected in recent decisions by the watchdog’s executive council and changing positions among its member states, Olabi noted.
Syria’s chemical weapons program has been under international scrutiny since the early years of the country’s civil war, when repeated chemical attacks killed or injured large numbers of civilians. The deadliest incident occurred in 2013 in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, when a sarin attack killed hundreds and triggered international efforts to dismantle the country’s chemical arsenal.
Olabi said the authorities that took over after President Bashar Assad and his regime were toppled in December 2024 were confronting what he called the “heavy legacy of the Assad era,” during which chemical weapons were widely used against civilians. He described the program as an inherited burden rather than a policy of the new government.
“The chemical file is a prime example of these inherited issues, issues of which we were victims,” he added.
Syrian authorities have granted OPCW experts unrestricted access during eight deployments that included visits to 23 sites, he said, and since October have been hosting what he described as the organization’s longest continuous presence in the country.
“This marks the beginning of a sustained presence of the OPCW in Syria,” Olabi added.
Adedeji Ebo, the UN’s deputy high representative for disarmament affairs, said OPCW teams visited 19 locations in Syria last year, four of them previously declared chemical weapons sites and 15 suspected locations, where they conducted interviews and collected samples in their attempts to determine the full scope of undeclared chemical weapons activity.
Some other sites are in dangerous areas, he added, which poses significant risks to both Syrian and international personnel.
“On-site destruction may be required where conditions prevent safe removal,” Ebo said, noting that a recent OPCW decision authorizing expedited on-site destruction of weapons marked a positive step forward.
He also highlighted the reestablishment of Syria’s National Authority for the OPCW and the watchdog’s current, continuous presence in Damascus.
Olabi said Syrian national teams had identified two sites containing empty cylinders previously used to store toxic chemicals and had immediately reported them to the OPCW. Syrian authorities also handed over about 6,000 documents relating to the former regime’s chemical weapons program, he added, and helped arrange interviews with 14 witnesses, including individuals who were involved with the program.
Syrian authorities were also cooperating with international investigators examining chemical attacks by Assad’s government, he said, and accountability and justice for the victims are priorities for the new authorities.
“Syria reiterates its determination to continue the efforts to close this chapter,” Olabi said, adding that there was “no place for chemical weapons in today’s world.”
