Gul: Israeli apology won’t end differences

NEW YORK, – Turkish president Abdullah Gul has announced that he won't meet with his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly's session due to a tight time schedule.

Anatolia news agency quoted Gul as saying, however, that he would meet with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Asked at a press conference in New York whether he would meet with Peres, he said that his schedule does not allow such a meeting.

Gul said that an Israeli apology for the attack on the Freedom Flotilla late last May while en route to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, which killed nine Turkish citizens, would not end the differences.

He added that the international law stipulates an apology at first to be followed by paying compensation for the mistakes done.