First of all you don't know if Israel possesses nuclear weapons. But more important, have you ever heard Israel threatning anybody with annihilation? there is a hell of a diffrence between a country ruled by religious fanatics like Iran and a democracy like Israel.. so you have to look at intentions as well. Ther are no checks and balances in Iran, the revolutionary guards are arming themselves to the teeth, and arming their proxys like hizbula as well..and all that is for waht? self defence??

Anyway. Gül denied it. Even I dislike Gül´s political views, he is "sempatik". Neyse, Gute Nacht y buenas noches amigo

Is anyone surprised at this? Erdogan calls Ahmadinejad a friend and the governments of Syria, Iran and Turkey have all announced that the three are now allies. It should come as no surprise that Erdogan would then support Iran's stance: to treat Israel as the real threat and to claim that endless, toothless, diplomacy is the only solution to Iran's nuclear push. Sadly, many policy makers actually do seem surprised at this because they seem to be in denial about Turkey's shift towards Islamism and Iran. It is thanks to them that Turkey is able to enjoy all the benefits of being a friend of the West while calling itself a friend of the West's enemies. I am also a bit bothered by this: "Turkey, frustrated by the slow progress of its EU membership negotiations, doubts the effectiveness of sanctions…" Turkey's "frustration" with the EU has nothing to do with this. This is right up there with those who claim that Turkey's anger over efforts to recognise the Armenian genocide is responsible for its behaviour. The reality is that Turkey's government is responsible for its own behaviour and those who claim otherwise are falling for the classic extremist strategy of acting "offended" in order to justify radicalism. As it stands, Turkey is not even trying to meet the requirements for EU membership, even while it complains of being offended that it is not already a member. Even if Turkey was already in the EU and no one had ever mentioned the Armenian genocide, Turkey would still be slamming Israel and siding with Iran, because that is the ideological direction Turkey's Islamists wanted from the beginning, and they would have come to power even if Turkey had been given early EU membership (Turkey's secular military had always been needed to guard Turkey's democracy from Islamists but EU rules would have forced the military to step aside). Let us stop pretending that Turkey's "frustration" and "offended" nature is an excuse for what Turkey's government does, otherwise they will always find some excuse to be "frustrated" or "offended".

Israelis should be aware that the Turkish alliance with Israel is not iron-clad. Its revival in the 1990’s, after decades of cold shoulder relations, was prompted by a rare convergence of strategic and economic interests, that were bolstered by the generous assistance that Israel poured on the most hard-hit areas of Turkey during the 1999 earthquake. But Turkey is a Muslim country, in spite of its commitment to maintain secular rule. No one could foresee the rise to power of Necmettin Erbakan precisely in those years of the summit in the honeymoon, but no one could forget either, that the army swiftly removed him and banned his party when he imprudently came too close to Iran. The army, who remained the arbiter of the correct behavior of the government, could by the same token threaten Syria with invasion and war if the latter did not desist from its support to Kurdish Turks. More about Turkey at : http://xrl.us/bfspye

Turkey has a long history of mass repression of all minorities; Erdogan's thinks himself the Pasha of Damascus. Israel should immediatelly advocate for International recognition of the Genocide of the Armenian People commited by Turkey. Turkey does not belong to Europe and half of its territory should be composed of autonomies.

The Non-Proliferation Treaty is a joke. Nations who have nuclear weapons (enough to destroy the world over many times), one who has actually used them on civilians (Nagasaki & Hiroshima) would deny the rest of the world from developing them? If the NPT is going to be effective then all nations should be subjected to it. I think in this regard Mr. Erdogan's line of thinking is correct. He would like to see neither Israel or Iran become nuclear. To those who think Iran would carry out nuclear attack against Israel - do you realize that Jerusalem is a holy city to Muslims also? That is after all why there is so much tension regarding it - right? If so, how can Iran ever carry out a nuclear attack against Israel? If you ask me, Israel has only need of conventional arms because the city of Jerusalem itself is the best deterrent of all.

First requirement to be a mediator is to be neutral between the two sides. So far AKP and Erdogan are sides and they are supporting Hamas openly and Mr. Erdogan in his BBC interview acted as if he was the lawyer of Iran. Turkey might want to be a powerhouse in the ME but the way it is going now, Turkey is losing to Iran on that.

The Islamic world already has big leverage against Israel in forms of 1. overwhelming population: Over 1 Billion Muslims against 15 Million Jews over the world 2. A strong and totally biased majority in the UN that will keep on submitting many resolutions against Israel, some with merit but most totally biased. Nuclear power in the hand of Iran does not create balance, it shifts power to Iran and the Shia Arab which not only opposed by Israel and the western world but even by the Sunni Arab states like Saudi Arabia.

You say Arabs would never destroy Jerusalem because it is holly. Did you already forget how many holly mosques were destroyed in Iraq by Arabs? And I wonder what makes something holly to Arabs? Holly city of Fallujah, Holly city of Karbala, Holly City of Najaf the list goes on an on and since 2003 Sunni and Shia kept on fighting, bombing and killing while destructing these sites.

It is precisely because Jerusalem not Holy to Muslims, but merely a tool of war, that Muslims would destroy it.