Israeli foreign minister urges NATO to expel Turkey, compares Erdogan to Saddam Hussein

Israel's foreign minister urged NATO to expel Turkey after its president, Tayyip Erdogan, threatened that his country could enter Israel as it had entered Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh in the past.

‘In the face of Turkish President Erdogan's threats to invade Israel and his dangerous rhetoric, Foreign Minister Israel Katz instructed diplomats to urgently dialogue with all NATO members, calling for Turkey's condemnation and demanding its expulsion from the regional alliance,’ the ministry said.

Erdogan said in a speech on Sunday: ‘We must be very strong so that Israel cannot do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just as we went into Karabakh, just as we went into Libya, we can do something similar’.

He did not specify what kind of intervention he was suggesting. Ankara, which has close ties with Hamas, also maintains diplomatic relations with Israel.

‘Erdogan is following in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein and threatening to attack Israel. He should remember what happened and how it ended,’ Katz said in the statement.

‘Turkey, which hosts the Hamas headquarters responsible for terrorist attacks against Israel, has become a member of the Iranian axis of evil, along with Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen,’ he added.

Relations between Israel and Turkey, once close regional allies, have been deteriorating for more than a decade.

Bilateral trade has weathered many diplomatic storms to billions of dollars a year, but Turkey said this month that, pending agreements with its business community, it would halt all bilateral trade with Israel until the war ends and aid can flow unimpeded to Gaza.