ISTANBUL: The United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA will open an office in Ankara, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, urging Muslim countries to give the agency more support after the Zionist entity banned it. Turkey has called the Zionist entity’s assault on Gaza genocide and its move to ban UNRWA a violation of international law, particularly amid worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, which has been reduced to rubble with millions displaced.

Addressing foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, Erdogan said opening an Ankara UNRWA office would deepen Turkey’s support for the agency. “We must not allow UNRWA, which plays an irreplaceable role in terms of taking care of Palestinian refugees, to be paralyzed by (the Zionist entity). We expect our organization and each member state to provide financial and moral support to UNRWA to thwart (the Zionist entity’s) games,” Erdogan said.

A Turkish diplomatic source said Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini were expected to sign an accord on the sidelines of the OIC meeting in Istanbul on establishing the office. Turkey has given UNRWA $10 million a year between 2023 and 2025. In 2024, it also transferred $2 million and sent another $3 million from its AFAD disaster management authority.

Fidan on Saturday accused the Zionist entity of leading the Middle East towards “total disaster” by attacking Iran on June 13. Iran and Zionist entity have been at war for nine days after the Zionist entity, claiming the Islamic Republic was on the brink of acquiring a nuclear weapon, launched a massive wave of strikes on its archrival, triggering an immediate response from Tehran.

“(The Zionist entity) is now leading the region to the brink of total disaster by attacking Iran, our neighbor,” Fidan told a meeting of top diplomats of the OIC. “There is no Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, Yemeni or Iranian problem but there is clearly a (Zionist) problem,” he said. He called for an end to the “unlimited aggression” against Iran. “We must prevent the situation from deteriorating into a spiral of violence that would further jeopardize regional and global security,” he added.

Speaking after Fidan, Erdogan accused Western leaders of providing “unconditional support” to the Zionist entity. A trenchant critic of the Zionist entity’s actions in both Gaza and Iran, Erdogan called for “high-level peace talks” between Tehran and the United States, according to his office, adding that Turkey was ready to play a “facilitator” role to help bring an end to the war.

Erdogan, who met Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on the sidelines of Saturday’s meeting, said Turkey would not allow borders in the Middle East to be redrawn “in blood”. “It is vital for us to show more solidarity to end (the Zionist entity’s) banditry — not only in Palestine but also in Syria, in Lebanon and in Iran,” he told the OIC’s 57 member countries.

The OIC, founded in 1969, says its mission is to “safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony”. According to Qatar’s foreign ministry, Araghchi also met the Gulf state’s top diplomat in Istanbul, who said he was working to bring the sides “back to the path of dialogue”. – Agencies