Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday that Israel has no intention of meeting Turkey's demand for an apology over a deadly Israeli raid on a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza.
Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper earlier quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as saying that Israel has three paths. "It either apologizes, or accepts the findings from an international commission investigating the raid, or Turkey will cut off ties," the daily quoted Davutoglu as saying.
But Lieberman rejected this possibility. "We don't have any intention to apologize. We think that the opposite is true," he told reporters after meeting Latvia's foreign minister during a visit to the Baltic state.
"We are concerned about what we have been seeing and hearing from Turkish officials, such as the possible Turkish vote against Iran sanctions at the UN Security Council," said Lieberman. "Such remarks are part of Turkey's about-face and new policy, which is an internal affair in which we cannot meddle."
The once-close Turkish-Israeli relationship has taken a steep nose dive following a tragically botched May 31 Israeli commando raid on a Gaza aid flotilla led by a Turkish non-governmental organization.
Nine Turks were killed in the attack.
Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel after the raid. It has also closed its airspace to Israeli military aircraft in response to the incident.
Turkey has previously stated its demands that before relations are normalized Israel must apologize, pay compensation to the victims and allow for an international inquiry into the event.
Israel has so far refused to meet those demands. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week said his country would not apologize or pay compensation to the flotilla victims.
Israel has meanwhile set up its own inquiry, headed by a former Supreme Court justice.
"We showed them an exit road. If they apologize as a result of their own investigation's conclusion, that would be fine for us. But of course we first have to see it," Davutoglu said.
"They are aware of our demands. If they do not want to apologize, then they should accept an international investigation," he added.
Davutoglu also suggested that Turkey could impose further sanctions against Israel should it fail to meet Turkey's conditions.
"If steps are not taken, the process of isolation will continue," he said.
On Friday, Trade and Labor Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer refuted a report by Turkish daily Hurriyet, which claimed that he had indicated to Davutoglu during their clandestine meeting in Brussels last week that Israel was rethinking its refusal to compensate and apologize over the flotilla incident.
"We have no plans to do that, and the minister did not promise anything to that regard during his meeting with the Turkish foreign minister two days ago," Ben-Eliezer's bureau said in response to the report.
Davutoglu warned Ben-Eliezer during their meeting that Turkey may ban commercial flights between the two countries unless Israel agreed to its demands.
The covert talks - the first high-level contacts between the tense allies since the deadly raid - raised a storm in both in Israel and in Turkey.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday said that when he was in the U.S. last week, officials tried to schedule a meeting between him and the Turkish foreign minister and ambassador, but he declined.
"It was clear these meetings were intended to raise Turkish complaints about the flotilla deaths and to demand compensation for those killed and injured, because of which I thought it is not the right time to meet them," said Barak.
Barak added that upon his return to Israel he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it would be an inappropriate time for Ben-Eliezer meet Turkish officials.