The Turkish and Iranian presidents greet each other at a summit meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Photo: Reuters/Turkish Presidential Press Office

The leaders of Turkey and Iran underlined their support for the Hamas terrorist organization on Wednesday, launching bitter attacks against both Israel and its Western allies on the sidelines of a summit meeting in Uzbekistan.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi made their comments while attending the meeting in Tashkent of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), which brings together Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and other nations in central Asia.

While the intensifying conflict in Gaza was not the focus of the meeting, Erdoğan and Raisi arrived in Tashkent determined to make Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel its main focus.

In his speech to the summit, the Turkish leader called on Muslim countries to “raise our voices together to defend our Palestinian cause,” targeting Western countries for their alleged “hypocrisy.”

“The Israeli administration, which has the full support of Western countries … is bombing schools, hospitals, churches, universities, and civilian settlements,” Erdoğan stated.

“Western countries, which constantly talk about human rights, freedoms, and democracy, are watching all these Israeli massacres from afar,” he added.

For his part, Raisi accused Israel of committing “terrible crimes,” characterizing the US administration as the Jewish state’s main “partner.”

The two leaders also held a joint meeting to highlight the conflict in Gaza as the US, the UK, and several EU member states reiterated their opposition to growing calls internationally for a ceasefire, on the grounds that doing so would hand Hamas an advantage.

At their meeting, Erdoğan repeated the Turkish offer made three weeks ago to coordinate the “guarantorship” of Gaza after the fighting ends. In his explanation of the proposal on Oct. 17, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that its purpose was to compel Israel to agree to a “two-state solution” to its conflict with the Palestinians.

“Countries in the region, the Arab League, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation should attach importance to this,” Fidan said. “We even go further and suggest that the countries that will be guarantors to the Palestinian side should be from the region. This includes Turkey. Other countries should be guarantors for Israel. Once an agreement is reached that both parties agree on, the guarantor countries should assume responsibility for fulfilling its requirements.”

In a separate development, Iran on Thursday issued an angry response to a statement from the G7, meeting in Tokyo, that called on the Tehran regime to end its support for Hamas.

Iran had engaged in “non-stop efforts to stop military attacks of the Zionist aggressor regime on the defenseless citizens” of Gaza, foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani claimed.

“What was expected from the meeting of the Group of Seven foreign ministers in Tokyo was to fulfill their international responsibility, including condemning the acts of the Zionist regime that violate human rights and international law in Gaza,” he said.