Time to show determination on Palestine, Turkish FM tells OIC

Turkey has vowed to take any necessary step for the Palestinians under the Israeli attack while calling on the world to stand united and determined.

"It's time to show our unity and determination. The ummah expects leadership from us. Turkey is ready to take any necessary step," Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in his address to the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) extraordinary executive-committee meeting convened virtually on May 16.

Holding Israel responsible for the escalating tensions in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, Çavuşoğlu described the military operations as "a part of Israel's systematic ethnic, religious and cultural cleansing."

The Turkish foreign minister warned that a two-state solution would be physically impossible given the increased illegal Jewish settlements and destruction of the Palestinian residential areas.

The United Nations Security Council has failed to bring about an initiative for the de-escalation of tensions due to the United States, Çavuşoğlu stressed, adding that a meeting has been planned at the U.N. General Assembly and that he would participate in that meeting. In this frame, a commission to observe the situation in Palestine might be established at the U.N. Human Rights Commission, he added.

"We cannot just make declarations and statements. We must do more. The international community has a responsibility to protect Palestinian civilians, and the OIC has a big responsibility in this context," he stated.

"We should strive to establish an international protection mechanism to protect Palestinian civilians in accordance with the 2018 resolution of the United Nations General Assembly," the minister added.

This protection mechanism can be formed by the...