Turkish foreign minister says Israel has become ‘direct threat to global security,’ urges ‘collective response’

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Friday that Israel now poses “direct threat to global security” and urged a “collective” international response, arguing that growing instability can no longer be viewed through a purely regional lens.

Speaking at Oxford University during an official visit to the UK, Fidan said the world is going through not merely a geopolitical transition but a deeper transformation.

“What we are witnessing today is not a transition, but it’s rather a transformation,” he said, arguing that states can no longer “outsource their security, their diplomacy, or their strategic imagination.”

Turning to the Iran war, which began with US and Israeli attacks on the country, Fidan said the conflict has dealt “a heavy blow to global prosperity, security, and stability.”

“Israel’s systemic threat to destabilize the region has exceeded local borders and now constitutes a direct threat to global security,” he said, adding that such actions “demand a collective response from the international community as a whole.”

Fidan also said “the distinction between regional and global crises has truly disappeared,” arguing that conflicts can no longer be treated as isolated.

He said such uncertainty has increased the relevance of middle powers, describing them as states with “strategic geography,” diplomatic reach and political will to produce outcomes.

He warned that unresolved disputes should be seen as structural sources of instability and ticking time bombs, calling for lasting solutions to chronic regional tensions.

Fidan pointed to Türkiye’s geographic position, institutional reach as a NATO member and EU candidate, and mediation efforts – from the Black Sea grain initiative to diplomacy in the Horn of Africa – as examples of Ankara’s role in crisis management.

Asked about European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s recent remarks saying the EU must complete the European continent to avoid “Russian, Turkish or Chinese influence,” Fidan called the comments unfortunate, adding that necessary communication was established and the issue has been resolved.

He also called for global institutional reform and a regional order in the Middle East based on cooperation rather than “domination or submission,” advocating “regional solutions to regional problems by regional countries.”

Fidan added that current geopolitical changes can no longer be managed through old assumptions or “autopilot” approaches, as that era is over.

He added that the key question is no longer whether the old order is obsolete, but who will shape the emerging one and under what conditions, voicing confidence that a peaceful and prosperous future is still achievable.

Source: Anadolu Agency

--Agencies