Turkey warned Israel yesterday it will cut ties unless it gets an apology for a deadly raid on Gaza-bound aid ships, but the Jewish state said it will never say sorry for defending itself.
Ankara has already closed its airspace to all Israeli military aircraft in reaction to the May 31 bloodshed on a Turkish ship in which nine Turks were killed, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the daily Hurriyet.
The Israelis have three options, Mr Davutoglu said in remarks published yesterday that further stoked up tensions between the one-time allies.
"Either they apologise, or accept an international (inquiry) commission and its report, or relations will be broken," he said.
Turkey has called for an international probe into Israel's interception of the flotilla, but Mr Davutoglu said Israel's own inquiry would be also acceptable if it resulted in an apology and compensation of the victims' families, according to Hurriyet.
"If their own commission concludes that the raid was unjust and if they apologise, that will be sufficient," he said, although he insisted on compensation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already ruled out any apology on Friday and a senior government official yesterday insisted that Israel would never say sorry for defending itself.
"Israel will never apologise for defending its citizens," the official said, echoing Netanyahu's remarks.
"Of course, we regret the loss of life but it was not the Israeli side that initiated the violence," the official said.
Foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor slammed Turkey's harsh rhetoric.
"When you want an apology, you don't use threats or ultimatums," Mr Palmor said. "Everything leads us to believe that Turkey has another agenda in mind."
Mr Davutoglu said he had presented Turkey's position during talks in Brussels on Wednesday with Israeli Trade Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer, the first high-level contact since the crisis erupted.
"We will not wait for eternity for an Israeli answer," he said.
"If they do not make any move (to meet Turkey's expectations), the process of isolating Israel will continue," he added.