Turkiye’s FM Fidan says Israel ‘looking for opportunity’ to attack Iran 

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said there were signs that Israel was seeking an opportunity to attack Iran, warning such a move could further destabilise the region.

“I hope they find a different path, but the reality is that Israel, in particular, is looking for an opportunity to strike Iran,” Hakan Fidan told Turkish broadcaster NTV in an interview broadcast on Friday.

Asked specifically whether this assessment applied to both the United States and Israel, Fidan stated that Israel, in particular, was seeking such an opportunity, the Turkiye Today news outlet reported.

The foreign minister added that he had conveyed concerns directly to Iranian officials during a recent visit to the country.

“When I went to Tehran in recent days, I told them everything about the process as their friend,” Fidan said. “And you know, a friend speaks bitter truths,” he said, according to Turkiye Today.

Fidan’s warning followed after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in a phone call on Thursday that Turkiye was opposed to any foreign interventions in Iran and that it valued its neighbour’s peace and stability.

A senior Iranian official told the Reuters news agency on Friday that Tehran would treat any attack by its enemies “as an all-out war against us” – the latest sabre-rattling in an escalating war of words between Washington and the Iranian leadership.

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump said that he had sent an “armada” of naval ships towards the Gulf region with Iran in its sights, once again ramping up rhetoric against Tehran after cooling his comments last week after apparently backing away from threats to attack Iran amid widespread antigovernment protests.

“If the Americans violate Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, we will respond,” the senior Iranian official told Reuters.

“This military buildup – we hope it is not intended for real confrontation – but our military is ready for the worst-case scenario. This is why everything is on high alert in Iran,” the official said.

“This time we will treat any attack – limited, unlimited, surgical, kinetic, whatever they call it – as an all-out war against us, and we will respond in the hardest way possible to settle this,” the official added.

“A country under constant military threat from the United States has no option but to ensure that everything at its disposal can be used to push back and, if possible, restore balance against anyone who dares to attack Iran.”

US media has reported that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its strike group of vessels have diverted from the South China Sea to the Middle East and are expected to arrive in the Gulf region in the coming days.

The US military last staged a major buildup of naval forces in June 2024 in support of Israel’s 12-day war on Iran and in advance of US attacks on Iran’s nuclear programme.