“When it’s Iran in question, you impose sanctions. Similarly with Sudan. What happens with Israel then?” Erdogan said, adding that had “these sanctions been imposed in this day and age, the Palestine-Israel conflict would have been resolved a long time ago.”

The Turkish PM indicated in the Time interview that the reason the international community had stood by without sanctioning Israel was that the Quartet – which includes Russia, the United States, the European Union, and the UN – was not genuinely interested in resolving the Mideast conflict.

Speaking of what he considered to be the Quartet’s lack of sincerity in addressing Mideast peace, Erdogan said: “you need to take a sincerity test before you even think of accomplishing this: [Ask yourselves the question], do we really want to resolve this issue or not?”