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U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he does not believe a military conflict will erupt between Israel and Türkiye, crediting his personal relationship with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a stabilizing force, even as the two leaders traded increasingly sharp warnings over Israeli military operations in the region.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump was asked whether he feared a direct confrontation between the two countries following Erdogan's recent statements that Israeli attacks on Syria and Lebanon had reached a level that also threatened Türkiye. Trump dismissed the prospect. "I don't think that would happen with Turkey, not as long as I'm president," he said, "because he respects me and I respect him."
Trump offered an unusually warm portrait of the Turkish leader, describing him as "a hell of a leader and a strong person" and saying the two had a productive working relationship. He added that if he had heard Erdogan was threatening Israel, "I think I'd call him and I think I'd make sure things were fine."
The remarks came after Erdogan delivered a forceful speech in which he accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of expanding military operations in Syria and Lebanon to a degree that now endangered Türkiye itself. Erdogan framed the two countries as lying within Türkiye's sphere of historical and cultural responsibility.
"Syria and Lebanon are two sovereign and independent states," Erdogan said. "But they are also part of Türkiye's geography of affection and brotherhood." He described Damascus and Beirut as sister cities of Istanbul, and drew his country's security perimeter well beyond its formal borders. "Türkiye's security does not begin only in Hatay," he said. "It begins in Aleppo, it begins in Damascus. Türkiye's security begins in Beirut."
Erdogan pledged that Ankara would not accept imposed arrangements in either country or ignore attacks on their populations, warning against what he characterized as territorial ambitions in the region.
Presidential Communications Director Burhanettin Duran rejected Netanyahu's comments as defamatory and "deeply inconsistent," arguing that a government facing genocide accusations at the International Court of Justice had no standing to lecture or target Erdogan.
"It is one of the greatest inconsistencies in history," Duran said, "that those standing trial at the International Court of Justice over accusations of genocide in Gaza attempt to smear Türkiye, the conscience of humanity, and shamelessly target our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the voice of the oppressed."
Duran accused the Israeli government of killing tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, destroying cities and disregarding international law. He said Netanyahu's remarks amounted to an attempt to attack Türkiye through accusations and propaganda, adding that "slander and propaganda cannot change the facts."
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