US Denies Breaking UK Rules On Israel Bomb Flights

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US Denies Breaking UK Rules On Israel Bomb Flights
Reuters
07/28/2006 12:41 AM

London: The United States denied on Thursday that it had broken British air transport procedures after London complained about US flights through a Scottish airport taking bombs to Israel.

A newspaper said Britain had agreed to allow Washington to fly more weapons to Israel via its airports despite Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett saying she was "not happy" about Washington failing to comply with procedures for such flights.

The Israel-bound arms flights threaten to overshadow Tony Blair’s visit to Washington this weekend.

The prime minister has faced mounting criticism at home as the only major world leader to join the United States in refusing to call for Israel to immediately stop its two-week bombing campaign of Lebanon.

Beckett said on Wednesday she had complained to Washington because the United States had not followed procedure for flying cargo loads of bombs bound for Israel through British airports.

"We have already let the United States know that this is an issue that appears to be seriously at fault, and we will be making a formal protest if it appears that that is what has happened," she said in Rome after a Lebanon crisis meeting.

Newspapers have said two Airbus cargo jets loaded with US bunker-busting bombs landed at Prestwick. British officials have not commented on the flights in detail but do not dispute those accounts.

"It appears that insofar as there are procedures for handling that kind of hazardous cargo, irrespective of what they are, it does appear that they were not followed," Beckett said.

But British officials have since seemed to row back from that position, saying authorities are still studying whether any rules were broken.

The Foreign Office did not allow its spokesman to discuss the subject on the record on Thursday.