Turkish president says neither Russia nor U.S. to resort to nuclear weapons

Photo taken on April 28, 2022 shows the office of Russia's energy giant Gazprom in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr/Xinhua)

ANKARA, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that a U.S.-Russia meeting in Türkiye has shown that neither party would attempt to use nuclear weapons, semi-official Anadolu Agency reported.

"The information I received from my intelligence director on whether Russia and the United States will resort to nuclear weapons is that as of now, neither party will have any attempts at nuclear weapons," Erdogan told reporters on his flight back to Türkiye from Indonesia.

The Turkish president was referring to a meeting between the heads of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service that was hosted by Türkiye's National Intelligence Organization in the capital Ankara on Monday.

"God forbid; this (nuclear weapon) might lead to a new world war. Let's not allow for it," he said.

The meeting between CIA Director Bill Burns and his Russian intelligence counterpart Sergey Naryshkin in Ankara was held at the request of the United States, Dmitri Peskov, Kremlin's spokesman, said Monday.