Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Germany's Olaf Scholz clashed over the Middle East crisis during talks in Istanbul. Erdogan denounced Israel's aggressive policies and accused them of carrying out a genocide in the Palestinian territories and attacks in Lebanon. Scholz, however, said Germany did not accept the claims of genocide and defended Israel's right to self-defense. Despite their differences, Erdogan thanked Scholz for his efforts to lift German restrictions on defense sales to Turkey, particularly Ankara's desire to buy 40 Eurofighter Typhoons. Trade relations between Germany and Turkey have reached $50 billion, and Erdogan expressed hope to increase that figure to $60 billion.