Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has warned that Israel is seeking an opportunity to attack Iran, stating that such a move could further destabilise the region.
In an interview with Turkish broadcaster NTV broadcast on Friday, Fidan remarked “I hope they find a different path, but the reality is that Israel, in particular, is looking for an opportunity to strike Iran”.
He clarified that this assessment applied specifically to Israel rather than both the United States and Israel.
Fidan noted that he had conveyed these concerns directly to Iranian officials during a recent visit to Tehran.
“When I went to Tehran in recent days, I told them everything about the process as their friend,” he said, adding that “a friend speaks bitter truths”.
The foreign minister’s warning followed a telephone conversation on Thursday between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian.
Erdogan emphasised that Turkiye remains opposed to foreign interventions in Iran and values the peace and stability of its neighbour. A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Friday that Tehran would treat any attack as an “all-out war”.
“This time we will treat any attack – limited, unlimited, surgical, kinetic, whatever they call it – as an all-out war against us, and we will respond in the hardest way possible,” the official stated.
The official added that Iran’s military is on high alert following the recent US military buildup in the Gulf region.
US President Donald Trump recently announced that an “armada” of naval ships was heading towards the area. Reports indicate that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its strike group have diverted from the South China Sea and are expected to arrive in the Gulf in the coming days.
The US military previously staged a significant buildup in June 2024 in support of Israel’s 12-day war on Iran and in advance of US attacks on Iran’s nuclear programme.
