British PM Sunak doubles down on commitment to arm Israel
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has doubled down on exporting arms to Israel, stressing that no change has been made with regard to selling arms to the occupying regime .
Sunak stressed on Wednesday that arms exports to Israel would continue as before and the flow would not be suspended, echoing Foreign Secretary David Cameron's remarks a day earlier that London's policy of selling arms to Tel Aviv remains "unchanged."
The UK has a “long-established process” relating to the arms export regime and “we review these things regularly," said Sunak in an interview with British phone-in and talk radio station LBC.
"That’s led to no change. Actually none of our closest allies have currently suspended existing arms licenses either, so we continue to discuss these things with our allies," the British prime minister stressed, despite growing pressure on the UK to end its arms sales to Israel.
He claimed that London has a “strict set of criteria” and an “obligation to act in accordance” with what he called legal assessments when it comes to arms exports.
His remarks came as a majority of Britons have called on London to no longer give arms to Israel, whose military has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip since October 7.
They fear that Israel may be using British-made weapons in military actions that violate international law in the Palestinian territory.
Sunak also dismissed suggestions that civil servants might refuse to process licenses, stressing that it would not be "appropriate" for officials to stop work relating to the sale of arms.
"That’s not something I’m familiar with, I don’t think that would be appropriate. We have a civil service code. All civil servants should work to the civil service code," he added.
A day earlier, Cameron said in Washington that "our position" regarding the export pf arms to Israel remained "unchanged."
Early this month, Israel’s deadly strikes on the NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK) in central Gaza drew worldwide condemnation. Three of the WCK aid workers killed by Israeli airstrikes were Britons, who were all UK military veterans working on its security team.
Last week, three former senior British judges joined over 600 members of the British legal profession in calling for London to stop arms export to Israel.
Britain supplied 42 million pounds ($53 million) of arms to Israel in 2022.
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