NATO ally Turkey plans to oppose an American-sponsored draft resolution at the United Nations condemning Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian terror factions. A vote on the resolution is scheduled for Thursday.
It specifically condemns “Hamas for repeatedly firing rockets into Israel and for inciting violence, thereby putting civilians at risk.” It also demands that Palestinian terror factions stop using “airborne incendiary devices” against Israel.
Turkey will vote against the resolution, Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported Tuesday. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu promised Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh that Turkey would do everything it could to stop its passage. Haniyeh lobbied the Turks to help Hamas thwart the American effort. Hamas called the resolution “aggression against the rights of the Palestinian cause” in a communiqué posted on its website and claimed it was an assault on “the right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves.”
Çavuşoğlu vowed that his country would “remain alongside the right of Palestine and Palestinians, and that its position is constant on the Palestinian Cause.”
Turkey has become a key Hamas ally and protector. Çavuşoğlu condemned January’s U.S. decision to classify Haniyeh as a specially designated global terrorist, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared last May that Hamas was not a terrorist organization.
via Turkey Sides with Hamas on U.N. Resolution Condemning Rocket Attacks
