Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that Turkey barred Israeli President Isaac Herzog from using its airspace earlier this week, forcing him to cancel a planned visit to the United Nations COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Herzog’s office announced that the cancellation was due to “security considerations.” However, during a press conference at the G20 Leaders Summit in Brazil, Erdogan said that the decision was actually tied to Turkey’s opposition to Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.

“With regard to the Israeli president going to Azerbaijan for the COP summit, we did not allow him to use our airspace,” Erdogan said, according to Turkish media. “There are other areas, there are other opportunities, we told him to travel from there… but I do not know whether he was able to go or not.”

The decision marks another escalation in tensions between Turkey and Israel.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)