Speaking at a forum here, Bilal said the world was witnessing the end of the whole rules-based international system as a result of the US-Israeli attacks on Iran. He cited as an example the Dutch government’s reaction to Iran’s retaliation against the large-scale airstrikes, saying Iran’s actions had been “unprovoked”.

He said he was baffled that some governments not only failed to question the US-Israeli attacks, during which Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed, but had also contributed to the aggression.

“Pretty much the world has become unhinged, and nobody can say what’s going to happen a month from now, a year from now, economically or politically,” he said while speaking at the Ilmuwan Malaysia Madani forum titled “Muslim Unity in Times of Geopolitical Crisis”.

Bilal also said he did not believe that the world was in a “worse situation” prior to the first and second world wars than it is today. “So, if there is a third world war tomorrow, nobody would be really taken aback by that.”

He accused Western civilisation, which professed to offer the world stability, advancement, peace, freedom, democracy. and liberal values, among others, of being for the most part no longer interested in those principles.

“Those values are valid and relevant only as long as they serve Western interests,” said Bilal, a businessman who also sits on the board of the Turkish Youth Foundation. In recent months, he has been the subject of speculation that he is being groomed to succeed his father.

Bilal, 44, has expanded his public profile with more frequent appearances on Turkey’s pro-government media outlets, fuelling speculation of his entry into politics. However, in April he told Russia’s Tass news agency: “I have no political ambition.”