Turkey's PM calls for UN reform after repeated Israel breaches

Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the international community to display a fair approach regarding threat of nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

Anadolu news agency reported, Erdogan urged Israel to stop violating Lebanon's airspace and territorial waters. He also called on the U.N. Security Council to put same pressure on Israel regarding nuclear arms as it does on Iran.

Erdogan told a joint press conference Monday with Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad al-Din al-Hariri, that the international community must warn Israel about its nuclear arsenal just like it did with Iran.

Erdogan said Israel never denied that it possessed nuclear weapons, calling on the five permanent members of the UN security Council to be fair, and follow up on nuclear weapons of Israel, just like they did with Iran.

He said Turkey did not want any country in the region to possess nuclear weapons, be it Iran and Israel.

Erdogan warned that an unfair approach to the problems in the region could cause problems in Middle East to spread to the rest of the world, thus threatening global peace.

Erdogan said Israel bombed Gaza once again yesterday with no apparent reason, noting that Israeli violation of Palestinian airspace and territorial waters were unacceptable.

"Why is it doing this? Because it says 'I possess the power in this region.' It possesses, unproportionate power and it is using this. It is not acting in accordance with UN resolutions, it is comfortable. It says 'I will do whatever I please,'" said Erdogan.

He also called for UN to be reformed and restructured.

He said Israel had ignored and violated over 100 UN resolutions including resolution 1701, which brought effectiveness and credibility of the UN into question.

Iran says it enriches uranium for civilian applications and that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has a right to the technology already in the hands of many others.

However, most experts estimate that Israel has at least between 100 and 200 nuclear warheads, largely based on information leaked to the Sunday Times newspaper in the 1980s by Mordechai Vanunu, a former worker at the country's Dimona nuclear reactor.

Israel, which has initiated several wars in the region in its 60-year history, has not denied having nuclear weapons, but has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and open its facilities for IAEA perusal.

Israel also often threatens Iran an attack over its nuclear sites.

/World Bulletin/