Leon Hadar
When US and Israeli aircraft struck Iran on February 28, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and decapitating much of the senior Iranian leadership, Turkey’s reaction was striking for what it withheld. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the US-Israeli attacks on Iran as a blatant violation of international law, closed Turkish airspace to US forces and personally conveyed his condolences following the assassination of Khamenei.
At the same time, Ankara took care to distance itself from Tehran, openly criticizing Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Gulf states and blaming Iranian intransigence for the collapse of pre-war negotiations. The message was deliberate, and it has aged well: Turkey was against the war and was no one’s ally in it.
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