Spain embargos arms sales to Israel

Tuesday, 05 August 2014
Spain has frozen all arms and technological sales to Israel in protest against its ongoing brutal war against the Gaza Strip and the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians, El Pais newspaper revealed.

The newspaper described this decision as purely "political" and was made last week by a committee consisting of the president, treasury, economy ministry, foreign ministry and defence ministry.

Spain is reported to have sold nearly €5 million in arms sales to Israel last year.

The Spanish decision comes hours after Britain announced it was reviewing licenses to export weapons and military technology to Israel.

A spokeswoman for the British government said yesterday that the UK is reviewing all arms export licenses to Israel because of the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "We are currently reviewing all export licenses to Israel to make sure they are appropriate," she said.

However, ministers said they would not stop licensing military equipment to Israel outright because they believed the country had a "legitimate right to self-defence".