Turkey says warships will accompany any of its vessels carrying
humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip to protect them from Israeli
interference.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told al-Jazeera
television Thursday that Turkey will continue its attempts to deliver
aid to Gaza, but will not allow a repeat of last year's Israeli raid on
the Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship Mavi Marmara, which left nine people
dead.
Erdogan said Turkey has taken steps to patrol the eastern
Mediterranean, vowing to stop Israel from "unilaterally exploiting"
natural resources in the area.
In an interview with Israel's Army
Radio on Friday, Israeli Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor dismissed
Erdogan's remarks as a "grave and serious" aggravation, but declined to
comment further, saying he hopes the situation "will pass."
Turkey
downgraded diplomatic ties with Israel this week. It expelled the
Israeli ambassador and other senior diplomats from Ankara, as well as
suspended military trade and cooperation with its former ally.
A
Turkish ruling party official, Huseyin Celik, said relations can return
to "old days" under certain conditions, reiterating Turkey's demand for
an Israeli apology for the Mavi Marmara raid. He also demanded the
payment of compensation to the families of the Turkish activists killed
in the incident.
Earlier Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud
Barak said he believes the rift "will pass," saying Turkey is "not an
enemy" of Israel. But he again insisted that Israel would not apologize
for the raid.
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone said
Washington wants the two nations to keep diplomatic channels open and
normalize relations as soon as possible.
Turkey's main opposition
party (CHP) has criticized the government's handling of the crisis,
saying it should not have allowed such a drastic deterioration in its
relationship with Israel.
The dispute began in May 2010, when
Israeli commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara. The ship was carrying
humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade
aimed at preventing weapons from reaching militants. A confrontation on
the vessel led to the killings of nine Turkish activists and the
wounding of several Israeli soldiers.
A U.N. report published
last week argued that Israel's naval blockade was a legitimate security
measure, but said that Israel used "excessive and unreasonable" force in
the incident. The report also accused the flotilla organizers of acting
"recklessly" by challenging the blockade.
Israel has accepted
the U.N. report with some reservations, while Turkey has rejected its
key findings.
On Thursday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman
Victoria Nuland called the report "credible," and urged the two nations
to resolve their differences so they can continue working together on
shared issues facing the region.
0 comments:
Post a Comment