UK rejects Israel's 'damaging' sanctions retaliation
LONDON: British foreign minister Ed Miliband on Wednesday condemned as “regrettable and damaging” Israel’s decision to order the closure of the UK’s consulate in Jerusalem as retaliation for London-led Western sanctions over settler violence.
LONDON - British Foreign Minister Ed Miliband denounced Israel's closure of the UK's Jerusalem consulate as a "regrettable and damaging" response to Western sanctions imposed over settler violence. Miliband, speaking to BBC Radio, stated that similar sanctions from other nations, like the Netherlands, had prompted Israel's retaliation.
After 12 countries, including the UK, Canada, and France, imposed trade sanctions against Israeli settlements in the West Bank due to a rise in settler attacks on Palestinians, Israel announced its own punitive measures. These included expelling British representatives from a US-brokered ceasefire monitoring center in Gaza, barring British training for Palestinian Authority forces, and forbidding 12 British MPs from visiting Israel.
Miliband dismissed concerns that the sanctions would hinder intelligence cooperation, affirming that intelligence and security ties with Israel would persist. Despite criticism from Britain's Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who labeled the sanctions as "little more than political flag-bearing" and predicted they would bolster extremism, Miliband emphasized the continuation of working with Israeli partners against threats from Iran.
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