Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that while the West may presume that Israel and its surrounding nations would be under threat from a nuclear-armed Iran, it is Israel that possesses nuclear weapons.
In a
Time magazine article published on Tuesday, Erdogan dismissed claims that the agreement to install NATO radar in Turkey was a response to the nuclear threat posed by Iran.
RELATED:Opinion: Erdogan's blood libel against the Jewish state
'Erdogan accuses German foundation of funding PKK' He said that the "radar system is executed under the framework of NATO
obligations," and that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not
concerned with the issue.
Erdogan continued to insist that UN
sanctions on Israel would help solve the Israel-Palestinian conflict,
saying "had these sanctions been imposed, the Palestine-Israel conflict
would have been resolved a long time ago."
The Turkish prime
minister also reiterated his demands for restoring ties between Ankara
and Jerusalem, which include an apology and compensation to the families
of the activists who lost their lives in the IDF raid of the Turkish
ship the
Mavi Marmara and an end to the blockade on Gaza.