British foreign secretary, Lord David Cameron has said the UK will not suspend weapons export to Israel.
This is in light of the growing humanitarian crisis in GazaCameron pointed out that ministers had “grave concerns” about humanitarian access in Gaza and urged Israel to turn its commitments on aid “into reality.”
He spoke at a joint press conference with his US counterpart, Antony Blinken in Washington DC on Tuesday.
The UK has been under pressure from senior Tories to suspend weapons export to Israel after the death of three Britons in the strike on aid group, World Central Kitchen.
Cameron said that continuing to allow arms export put the UK in line with other “like-minded countries” and reiterated that the UK had a robust legal process for assessing those licences.
“We don’t publish legal advice, we don’t comment on legal advice but we act in a way that is consistent with it, we’re a government under the law and that’s as it should be,” he said.
The former prime minister said the Israel-Hamas conflict was a “different situation” from when the UK published a summary of legal advice before taking military action in Libya, or more recently in the Red Sea.
During his visit to Washington, which followed dinner with Donald Trump at the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Cameron told reporters: “I have now reviewed the most recent advice about the situation in Gaza and Israel’s conduct of their military campaign.
“The latest assessment leaves our position on export licences unchanged. This is consistent with the advice that I and other ministers have received and as ever we will keep the position under review.
“Let me be clear, though, we continue to have grave concerns around the humanitarian access issue in Gaza, both for the period that was assessed and subsequently.
“We’ve seen a welcome increase in trucks with perhaps as many as 400 going in yesterday, the highest since 7 October, and of course public commitments from Israel to flood Gaza with aid. These now need to be turned into reality.”
