Turkey’s top diplomat said Friday that Ankara had closed its ports and airspace to Israeli ships and planes, with a diplomatic source telling AFP the ban applied to “official” flights.

“We have closed our ports to Israeli ships. We do not allow Turkish ships to go to Israeli ports…. We do not allow container ships carrying weapons and ammunition to Israel to enter our ports, nor do we allow their aircraft to enter our airspace,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told lawmakers in a televised address.

Asked for clarification about the minister’s remarks, a Turkish diplomatic source said its airspace was “closed to all aircraft carrying weapons (to Israel) and to Israel’s official flights”.

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It was not immediately clear when the airspace restrictions were put in place.

In November, Turkey refused to let the Israeli president’s plane from crossing its airspace, forcing him to cancel a planned visit to the COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan.

And in May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a visit to Baku after Ankara reportedly refused overflight rights.

This week, Israel’s biggest shipping firm ZIM said it had been informed that under new regulations passed in Turkey on August 22, “vessels that are either owned, managed or operated by an entity related to Israel will not be permitted to berth in Turkish ports”.

Fidan’s remarks were the first public acknowledgement of the ban.