DUBAI — A bitter trade row between U.S. and Gulf airlines deepened on Thursday when Dubai’s Emirates rejected a Delta Air Lines apology for remarks perceived as linking Gulf carriers with the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

Relations have deteriorated since a group of U.S. airlines compiled a dossier claiming that major Gulf carriers had received $40 billion in subsidies and urged the U.S. government to renegotiate or scrap an Open Skies trade pact.

Gulf carriers denied that they received subsidies and said that United States-based airlines themselves benefited from $5 billion in government help in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Asked about those counter-claims on CNN this week, Delta CEO Richard Anderson said: “It’s a great irony to have the United Arab Emirates from the Arabian Peninsula talk about that, given the fact that our industry was really shocked by the terrorism of 9/11, which came from terrorists from the Arabian Peninsula.”

The comments have infuriated officials in the UAE and Qatar, two U.S. allies that offered military or logistical support for international operations after the 2001 attacks.

Delta said that Anderson had been responding to claims that the post-9/11 payments to U.S. airlines amounted to subsidies.

“He didn’t mean to suggest the Gulf carriers or their governments are linked to the 9/11 terrorists. We apologize if anyone was offended,” it said in an emailed statement.

But Emirates, the largest of the three leading Gulf carriers that also include Qatar Airways and Abu Dhabi’s Etihad, rebuffed the explanation.

“We believe that the statements made this week by Mr. Anderson were deliberately crafted and delivered for specific effect,” it said in a statement.