Fidan says Israel is now ‘direct threat to global security,’ urges collective action

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stated on Friday that Israel has evolved into a “direct threat to global security” and called for a collective international response. Speaking at Oxford University on global reordering, Fidan argued that the world is experiencing not merely a geopolitical transition but a deeper transformation. “What we are witnessing today is not a transition, but rather a transformation,” he said, emphasizing that states can no longer “outsource their security, their diplomacy or their strategic imagination.”

Regional and global crises have merged

Referring to the Iran war, which began with US and Israeli strikes, Fidan said the conflict dealt “a heavy blow to global prosperity, security and stability.” He warned that “Israel’s systemic threat to destabilize the region has exceeded local borders and now constitutes a direct threat to global security,” adding that such actions “demand a collective response from the international community as a whole.” Fidan stressed that “the distinction between regional and global crises has truly disappeared,” arguing that conflicts can no longer be treated as isolated events.

Middle powers gain strategic weight

Fidan noted that rising uncertainty has increased the relevance of middle powers — states with strategic geography, diplomatic reach, and political will to produce outcomes. He cited Türkiye’s geographic position, NATO membership, EU candidate status, and mediation efforts from the Black Sea grain initiative to diplomacy in the Horn of Africa as examples. He also called for global institutional reform and a Middle East regional order based on cooperation rather than “domination or submission,” advocating “regional solutions to regional problems by regional countries.”