David Cameron rules out following US on withholding arms to Israel
Foreign Secretary said the UK would not support a major Israeli assault on Rafah without a clear plan for protecting civilians
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron has said the UK will not be withholding arms sales to Israel, adding its position is not comparable with that of the US.
But he again said the UK would not support a major Israeli assault on Rafah without a clear plan for protecting civilians.
Cameron said there was a major difference between the US situation, where President Joe Biden has warned he will stop supplying some weapons to Israel if there is a Rafah offensive, and the UK.
Answering questions following a speech in London, he said: “There’s a very fundamental difference between the US situation and the UK situation.
“The US is a massive state supplier of weapons to Israel. We do not have a UK Government supply of weapons to Israel, we have a number of licences, and I think our defence exports to Israel are responsible for significantly less than 1% of their total. That is a big difference.
“On Rafah, we are clear that we would not support some major operation in Rafah unless there was a very clear plan for how to protect people and save lives, and all the rest of it.
“We have not seen that plan, so in the circumstances we will not support a major operation in Rafah.
“We have very clear licensing procedures, some of the toughest and most rigorous in the world. We follow them through very closely and that’s what we’re doing, and will continue to do, in the period ahead.”
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