Regional summit denounces Israel’s raid on Flotilla


Agencies June 08, 2010

ISTANBUL: A regional summit on Tuesday denounced the Israel’s raid on the Turkish aid Flotilla and the killing of nine Turkish activists.

Speaking as chairman of the 22- member Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), Turkish President Abdullah Gul said the condemnation showed Israel was isolated and that it “will suffer the consequences for its mistake against Turkey”.

However, a declaration issued at the end of the summit omitted any reference to Israel, which as a fellow member opposed such mention; although Turkey had sought inclusion of strong words.

The talks were attended by high-level dignitaries including Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan as well as Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Addressing the conference, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the attack on the aid flotilla highlights the urgency to find a just solution to the longstanding Palestinian dispute.

The establishment of an independent Palestinian state is essential to bring the Palestinian sufferings to an end and achieve durable peace in the Middle East, he said. “We would like to convey our heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the Turkish nation and grieving families,” Qureshi added.

“The consequences of acts undertaken with feelings of hatred and vengeance are obvious. Unfortunately, we saw a merciless example of that recently,” Turkish President Abdullah Gul said at the summit.  “We must definitely say ‘stop’ to this tendency which is extremely worrying with respect to international peace and security,” he added.

Speaking on the sidelines of the gathering, Prime Minister Putin said that Russia will raise the controversial issue of who should investigate Israel’s deadly raid on the flotilla at the United Nations. “We are deeply worried by such a crude violation of the universally recognized norms of international law,” he told reporters, stressing the raid took place in international waters in the Mediterranean. “We can’t allow a new flame to flare up in the Middle East” he added. Israeli leaders were also invited to Tuesday’s summit, but only the country’s ambassador to Turkey attended the event.

Turkey said on Monday that normalisation of ties with Israel would be “out of the question” if it failed to agree to an international probe into the operation.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 9th, 2010.

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