Ahmet Davutoglu
Ahmet DavutogluReuters

Turkey’s Foreign Minister blasted Israel on Saturday, one day after the decision to build 3,000 new homes in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

“It is high time to take a firm stance against Israel’s activities that destroy the peace process in the Middle East,” Ahmet Davutoglu said during a meeting of the Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum in Istanbul, the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman reported.

Davutoglu accused Israel of recognizing no laws and acting irresponsibly.

“The precondition for a lasting peace in the region is the establishment of a free Palestinian state that Palestinians have been yearning for,” the Turkish foreign minister remarked, referring to Thursday’s United Nations decision to recognize “Palestine” as a non-member observer state.

Speaking at the meeting on Saturday, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also hailed the upgrade by the UN General Assembly and vowed full support for the Palestinian Authority.

“This is achieved thanks to efforts by the alliance, solidarity and consultations of regional countries,” Erdogan stated, according to Today’s Zaman.

He also said, according to a report in AFP, "We must see and admit that Palestine is also a country under occupation despite the fact that it won observer status."

Friday’s decision by Israel to build 3,000 new housing units in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to promote the building of thousands of housing units in the area which connects Jerusalem and Maale Adumim came as a response to the unilateral move by the PA.

Abbas' move at the United Nations has “buried the Oslo Accords”, according to various political figures and that is why peace talks with him are not on the agenda.

The move to be "recognized" as a state, although symbolic, was made without agreed upon borders or a declaration of peace and is essentially a hostile step. Abbas ignored the U.S. government's request that he refrain from doing so and the automatic pro-PA vote in the General Assembly, in addition to European support, made the result a foregone conclusion.