By IRNA,
London : The British government is seeking to reassure the Israeli regime that it remains a key ally despite threats that its leaders face prospect of being arrested for alleged war crimes if they visit the UK.
“Israel continues to be a strategic partner and a close friend of the UK. We shall continue to foster a close relationship with Israel and are determined to protect and develop these ties,” Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis told MPs.
“Israeli leaders — like leaders from other countries — must be able to visit the UK,” Lewis said in a written parliamentary reply published Thursday.
The minister was being questioned about the implications for UK-Israel relations following the issuing of an arrest warrant for alleged war crimes against former foreign minister Tzipi Livni that prevented her from coming to Britain last month.
Lewis confirmed that Foreign Secretary David Miliband spoke to Livni as well as his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman following the cancellation of her visit.
“The government are looking urgently at ways in which the UK system might be changed in order to avoid this sort of situation arising again,” he said.
The threat of being arrested for alleged war crimes has also reportedly led to the cancellation of other visits, including most recently four Israel Defence Force officers after the British government was unable to guarantee warrants would not be issued.
On a private visit to Israel this week, Britain’s Attorney General Baroness Scotland was also said to have offered reassurance that the UK government was “determined that Israel’s leaders should always be able to travel freely to the UK”.
Reports have suggested that the government is seeking to give the attorney general, who is also a cabinet minister, a veto over arrest warrants for foreign leaders in an attempt to placate the Israeli regime.
But Britain’s pledge to find ways to prevent Israeli leaders being arrested has led to accusations that the government is interfering in the country’s judicial system.
Amongst others, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has gone as far as accusing Miliband of employing double standards by not pursuing alleged Israeli war criminals and being “selective compliance with the enforcement of international law”.
In a letter to the foreign secretary last month, the MCB also warned that the UK government was jeopardising its international reputation by interfering in the law to prevent Israeli leaders being arrested under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
“We run the risk of strengthening the claims of those who reject our democratic processes and view our commitment to law, domestic and international, as utilitarian and malleable,” MCB secretary general Abdul Bari warned.