ISTANBUL, November 18. /TASS/. The international community should investigate if Israel possesses nuclear weapons "until it is too late," Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told reporters of his pool when returning from Germany, which he visited on Friday.

"It is absolutely necessary to check Israel for having nuclear weapons until it is too late. We will follow up on this," Erdogan said, as quoted by the Anadolu news agency.

The Turkish president pointed out that Israel is not a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (known as the NPT), so its provisions are not effective in regard to it.

"Nevertheless, the signatories to the treaty can request the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to establish a monitoring mechanism. We are setting it off now. They [the IAEA] will convene the council and decide on this request, but the process will take some time. The council’s decision should be submitted to the UN Security Council," Erdogan said.

"The US might take Israel’s side there and veto the request. However, the fact that this issue will be addressed on that platform is in fact a tremendous situation. This is the first case of such a statement being recorded against Israel to date," he said.