BICOM

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyep Erdogan again intensified tensions with Israel yesterday, when he said in an interview with al-Jazeera that warships of the Turkish Navy would escort future Turkish aid convoys to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Erdogan also said in the interview that Turkey has taken steps to stop Israel from ‘unilaterally exploiting natural resources form the eastern Mediterranean,” presumably a reference to the large reserves of natural gas recently discovered by Israel off its Mediterranean coast.

Israeli officials have made no official response to Erdogan’s latest remarks. However, un-named senior officials quoted in Ynet, said that NATO would be unlikely to approve of one of its prominent member states appearing to threaten Israel, which enjoys excellent relations with the organisation. Behind the scenes, Israel has in the last few days been making diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis with Turkey. US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and other American legislators recently met with Turkey’s Ambassador to Washington in an effort to mediate between Ankara and Jerusalem. However, the latest statement from Erdogan appears to indicate that at least for now, he has no interest in putting an end to the crisis in relations with Israel.