Erdoğan blasts UN over US veto of Gaza ceasefire resolution

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has denounced the U.N. Security Council after the United States vetoed a ceasefire resolution for Gaza, describing the international body as the "Israel protection council."

Erdoğan used a speech on human rights on Dec. 9 to accuse the West of "barbarism" for its stance on the Israel-Hamas war and what he alleged was its toleration of Islamophobia.

"Israel has carried out atrocities and massacres that will shame the whole of humanity," Erdoğan told a packed hall in Istanbul the day before the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"All the values relating to humanity are being murdered in Gaza. In the face of such brutality, international institutions and human rights organizations are not taking any concrete steps to prevent such violations," the president said.

The human rights declaration, proclaimed by the U.N. General Assembly in Paris on Dec. 10, 1948, enshrines a standard for human rights and freedoms for all people.

"Since Oct. 7, the security council has become an Israel protection and defense council," Erdoğan said, arguing it is essential for it to be reformed.

The United States on Dec. 8 vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the intense fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Washington thus dashed a growing clamor for a halt to fighting that had been led by U.N. chief Antonio Guterres and Arab nations.

"Is this justice?" asked Erdoğan, adding that "the world is bigger than five," a reference to the five veto-wielding nations in the U.N. Security Council. "Another world is possible, but without America."

The U.N. resolution for a ceasefire was submitted more than two months after the start of the war in...