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Beckett in rebuke to US over Scottish stop-off for Israeli bombs
JAMES KIRKUP AND LOUISE GRAY
BRITAIN last night threatened a formal complaint to the United States after the American military used a Scottish airport to transport bombs to Israel for use in Lebanon.
In a highly unusual public rebuke, Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, used a TV interview to reveal she had accused Washington of breaking international agreements on transporting weapons via the UK.
BBC 2's Newsnight later reported the US had lodged requests to carry two more planes through Britain en route to Israel carrying bombs and missiles in the next two weeks.
It is understood Mrs Beckett also raised the matter personally with Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state.
Her remarks follow days of pressure on the government to take a more critical stance over the Middle East crisis. Britain, following the US lead, has so far refused to demand an Israeli ceasefire, insisting that Lebanon's Hezbollah must also agree to stop military activity.
It emerged yesterday that two US transport planes carrying "bunker-buster" bombs had refuelled at Prestwick en route to Israel at the weekend.
The concrete-penetrating bombs, possibly as many as 100, will be used by the Israeli air force to try to kill Hezbollah leaders in hardened bunkers.
Prestwick is a regular stop-off for US military planes. The CIA is said to have used it for the "rendition" of terror suspects over a number of years. Britain has turned a blind eye to such flights, but Mrs Beckett made clear her feelings about the transport of laser-guided bombs via Scotland.
"I am not happy about it," she told Channel 4 News. "It appears that in so far as there are procedures for handling that kind of cargo - hazardous cargoes irrespective of what they are - it does appear that they were not followed. I have already let the US know that this is an issue that appears to be seriously at fault: that we will be making a formal protest if it appears that is what has happened."
John Barrett, the Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, has written to Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, to ask whether Edinburgh Airport has been used for similar stopovers. He said: "It is madness that we are sending humanitarian aid to Lebanon on the one hand while effectively helping supply Israel with the bombs to destroy the country with the other." |
