Hillary Clinton: I spent years urging Israel to apologize to Turkey

Baku. 10 September. REPORT.AZ/ U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that she has spent years trying to get Israel to apologize to Turkey for a deadly attack on an aid flotilla to Gaza, Report informs referring to Turkish 'Daily Sabah'. 

"We lost what was not just a working relationship but a real bridge," Clinton said. "I spent, you know, literally years trying to get the Israelis to finally apologize to the Turks on the flotilla."

She said she spoke to strategists such as Henry Kissinger to help her present a strategic argument to convince Israel that it should apologize to the Turks as soon as possible so that relations with Turkey could resume. 

Clinton's comments came during a discussion at the Brookings Institution where she responded to a question of whether the U.S. could lead a partnership between Israel and Arab states, or other U.S. allies. 

She said forming Mideast partnerships on shared interests is an opportunity, but warned it is not an easy goal to accomplish -- before providing the example of the Turkish-Israeli split on the flotilla case. 

Israeli commandos stormed the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara in 2010 while in international waters as the vessel carried humanitarian aid to Gaza. Nine Turkish citizens were killed, including a Turkish American, and many others wounded in the operation.