Arab Spring.
Turkey’s Prime Minister and leader of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Tayyip Erdogan (R) and his guest Egypt’s President Mohamed Mursi greet the audience during AK Party congress in Ankara September 30, 2012. Erdogan trumpeted Turkey’s credentials as a rising democratic power on Sunday, saying his Islamist-rooted ruling party had become an example to the Muslim world after a decade in charge. (Reuters)
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi pledged their opposition to Israel at a conference in Turkey this weekend. Hamas leader Mashaal said that resistance was the only way to get Israel to back down from “occupation.”
YNet News reported:
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi at a major congress of his ruling party on Sunday. The three leaders pledged joint opposition to Israel and Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Erdogan went as far as to blast Israel’s “state terrorism,” while Mashaal asserted that “resistance” is the only way to get is the Jewish state to back down from the “occupation.”
The Hamas leader, who received a standing ovation, said that his movement is committed to the liberation of Palestine and the creation of a Palestinian state. He did not address his decision to step down from his position as the group’s politburo chief.
“We are committed to liberating our land and taking back Jerusalem, dismantling the settlements and bringing back refugees, freeing the prisoners jailed by the Zionist occupier and establishing a real Palestinian state, with true sovereignty in spite of the enemy,” he said.
Mashaal stressed that “resistance” is the only means towards reinstating the Palestinians’ rights. He said that all other international attempts to press Israel to back down have failed.
Mashaal’s address underlined the deterioration in the ties between Ankara and Jerusalem. Erdogan’s willingness to buddy up to Mashaal in front of the cameras on Sunday marked a stark shift from six years ago, when the Turkish leader refused to meet the Hamas chief during the latter’s trip to Ankara.
Barack Obama just gave the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood government $450 million two weeks after protesters stormed the US embassy and torched the American flag.
