“It is in the interest of Israel to work with international bodies to get out of this mess,” he told Today's Zaman aboard a plane en route to İstanbul last week. He said the Israeli government perpetrated this act and it should be held accountable for the attack, which happened in international waters. “We are a country strongly advocating the rule of law in international waters,” he said, stressing that the Swedish government is pressing for an independent commission to investigate what happened.
“I’m pretty certain this is a violation of international law,” Bildt underlined, adding that his experts agree on the point that the actions were an infraction of international law. “They [experts] are telling me that this is a straightforward case of violation,” he noted, adding that he hoped independent experts would be commissioned to study the raid.
Sweden pushed for stronger condemnation of Israel by the European Union last week. “I called Catherine Ashton [the high representative of the union for foreign affairs and security policy] to draft a text to express our reaction to the raid,” he recalled, stressing that all EU member states are on board when it comes to condemnation of Israel for the loss of life on a civilian aid ship.
Ashton issued a written statement last Monday criticizing Israel. “The EU condemns the use of violence that has produced a high number of victims among the members of the flotilla and demands an immediate, full and impartial inquiry into the events and the circumstances surrounding them,” she said. “The EU does not accept the continued policy of closure. It is unacceptable and politically counterproductive. We need to urgently achieve a durable solution to the situation in Gaza. The EU underlines its call for an immediate, sustained and unconditional opening of crossings for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons to and from Gaza,” the statement read.
Responding to a question on what impact the Israeli attack would have on Turkish-Israeli relations, Bildt said this is an international diplomatic crisis, not an issue between two or three countries. “We are still in crisis mode and interviewing our citizens who participated in this aid convoy,” he said, adding that his government is asking for the return of the personal belongings of its citizens seized by the Israeli police. Bildt said 11 Swedish citizens, including a member of parliament from the Green Party, joined the aid flotilla.
Bildt also said the EU would further consider tackling the issue in upcoming summit of EU leaders, to be held in Brussels on June 17.
