Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will travel to The Hague on Tuesday to join NATO leaders at a high-stakes summit dominated by growing concerns over the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran.
“Tomorrow I am traveling to The Hague to attend the NATO summit. We have mobilized all means to prevent irreparable pain,” Erdogan said on Monday at an event in Ankara, referring to Israel’s ongoing strikes on Iran, which have reportedly killed more than 400 people over the past 11 days.
Despite mounting regional tensions, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte dismissed suggestions that the Middle East conflict would overshadow the summit of the alliance’s 32 members.
“Allies have long agreed that Iran must not develop a nuclear weapon,” Rutte told reporters on Monday, reiterating NATO’s unified stance on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. He also accused Iran of being “heavily involved” in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“Iranian drones are killing innocent Ukrainians every day in cities and communities without any respect for life,” he said.
Over the weekend, former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that American warplanes had used “bunker buster” bombs to “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
However, Western officials cautioned that it was too early to assess the true extent of the damage, as Iran’s nuclear program remains shrouded in secrecy and dispersed across multiple sites.
Iran, which has condemned the U.S. strikes, warned that the bombing would “pave the way for the extension of war in the region” and threatened “serious, unpredictable consequences.”
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday called Israel’s bombing campaign, which began on June 13, “a big mistake,” as the international community awaited Iran’s next move.