LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended Wednesday his government’s partial suspension of arms exports to Israel over fears they could be used in a breach of humanitarian law as “a legal decision.”
Starmer said that Monday’s announcement to suspend 30 of 350 arms exports licenses did not signify a change in UK support for Israel’s right to self-defense.
He also said that allies “understand” the UK’s move.
“This is a difficult issue, I recognize that, but it’s a legal decision, not a policy decision,” Starmer told lawmakers during the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session in parliament.
He said the decision was taken following a review by the foreign ministry into Israel’s conduct of its war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
The review was begun shortly after Starmer’s center-left Labour party swept to power in a landslide general election victory over the Conservatives in early July.
“We will of course stand by Israel’s right to self-defense but it’s important that we are committed to the international rule of law,” Starmer said.
The partial ban covers items that could be used in the current conflict in Gaza including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones but not parts for advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets.
The decision has angered Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slamming it as “shameful.”
Starmer also denied that the move indicated a spilt with the United States.
On Monday, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said London had informed Washington of its move before it was announced.
“We’ll let other nations decide for themselves if they’re going to support Israel and to what degree,” Kirby told reporters. “That’s what sovereignty is all about.”
He added that for its part there had been “no determination” by the United States that Israel had violated humanitarian law.
In London, Starmer told MPs: “We have talked this through with our allies, they understand, they have a different legal system, that is the point they have made.”
Starmer’s government is pursuing a more nuanced approach to the Middle East conflict than his predecessor Rishi Sunak’s Tory administration.
It has similarly repeatedly called for a ceasefire and for speeding up aid deliveries to Gaza, and demanded that Hamas release all hostages seized in its October 7 attacks.
But it has also resumed funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and dropped a legal challenge over international arrest warrants for senior Israeli figures, including Netanyahu.
UK’s Starmer defends Israel arms suspension as ‘legal decision’
https://arab.news/pp9z7
UK’s Starmer defends Israel arms suspension as ‘legal decision’
- “We will of course stand by Israel’s right to self-defense but it’s important that we are committed to the international rule of law,” Starmer said
Syria ministry says gunman who killed Americans was to be fired from security forces for ‘extremism’
Syria ministry says gunman who killed Americans was to be fired from security forces for ‘extremism’
- Syrian authorities “had decided to fire him” from the security forces before the attack for holding “extremist Islamist ideas” and had planned to do so on Sunday
DAMASCUS: Syria’s interior ministry said on Sunday that the gunman who killed three Americans in the central Palmyra region the previous day was a member of the security forces who was to have been fired for extremism.
Two US troops and a civilian interpreter died in the attack on Saturday, which the US Central Command said had been carried out by an alleged Daesh group (IS) militant who was then killed.
The Syrian authorities “had decided to fire him” from the security forces before the attack for holding “extremist Islamist ideas” and had planned to do so on Sunday, interior ministry spokesman Noureddine Al-Baba told state television.
A Syrian security official told AFP on Sunday that “11 members of the general security forces were arrested and brought in for questioning after the attack.”
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the gunman had belonged to the security forces “for more than 10 months and was posted to several cities before being transferred to Palmyra.”
Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins, was once controlled by Daesh during the height of its territorial expansion in Syria.
The incident is the first of its kind reported since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and rekindled the country’s ties with the United States.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in support of counter-terrorism operations when the attack occurred, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted “a joint US-Syrian government patrol.”
US President Donald Trump called the incident “a Daesh attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” using another term for the group.
He said the three other US troops injured in the attack were “doing well.”
