ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump was making “wrong calculations” regarding the Middle East, adding that heeding “Zionist lies” would only exacerbate conflicts.
Turkey has rejected Trump’s plan to remove the more than 2 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, claim U.S. control of it and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. It has also said Israel’s assault on Gaza amounted to a genocide, while calling for international measures against its government.
“Unfortunately, the United States is making a wrong calculation about our region. One should not be engaged in an approach that disregards the region’s history, values, and accumulation,” he said, according to a transcript of comments to journalists on a return flight from Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan.
Erdogan said he expected Trump to realise his election campaign promises of taking steps for peace, rather than create new conflicts.
He said he saw no real signs of a ceasefire in Gaza despite a truce agreement between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, and added the Muslim world had still not been able to take a collective step on the issue.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
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