Turkey's Gul: Israel isolated, will suffer consequences

All members except Israel of a regional summit that ended in Istanbul on Tuesday denounced Israel's raid on a Turkish ship bound for Gaza and the killing of nine Turkish activists, Turkey's president said.

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

The Turkish leader said the Israeli naval operation was conducted "out of hate and an attempt to seek revenge."

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

In his speech, Gul stressed that an overwhelming majority of the countries also called for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East and for Israel to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and place all of its nuclear facilities under the safeguard of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Earlier Tuesday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met on the sidelines of the summit.

Addressing the flotilla raid, Putin said "such actions against a civilian ship are unacceptable. These actions in international waters are especially concerning, and undoubtedly require a thorough investigation."

The Russian PM said Tuesday that new gas pipeline that will link Russia to the Middle East via Turkey may not be extended to Israel as originally projected. He says there are economic concerns after Israel found gas in its own waters.

"The basic issue is Israel may not be needing this gas that much, he said, adding that the development is not related to the "tragic incident."

Reuters and AP contributed to the report