Turkey to continue defending Palestinian cause

By Sibel Morrow

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's foreign minister on Sunday vowed to defend the just cause of Palestinians till the end.

Mevlut Cavusoglu's statement came after an emergency summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The meeting followed comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on applying Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea if he wins the Sept. 17 elections.

"Those who feel uncomfortable about our statement today, brutally & indiscriminately massacre our Palestinian brothers & sisters, viciously use state terrorism before the eyes of the world and even attempt to shamelessly attack our President. Will defend this just cause till the end!" Cavusoglu said in a tweet.

Roughly 70,000 Palestinians -- along with some 9,500 Jewish settlers -- currently live in the Jordan Valley, which is a large, fertile strip of land that accounts for roughly one-quarter of the West Bank's overall territory.

Turkey, Arab League and European countries said they were concerned by Netanyahu's annexation statement, with UN secretary general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric saying the annexation plan would violate international law.

International law views both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there as illegal.