Britain’s new Defence Secretary Wes Streeting on Wednesday defended his previous remarks accusing Israel of committing war crimes, saying he would not distance himself from comments already on the record, Anadolu reports.
Speaking to journalists at the Farnborough International Airshow, Streeting said Israel must be judged by the same standards applied to Britain and its other allies, while maintaining that the country had the right to defend itself.
Asked whether he still stood by his past remarks that Israel had committed war crimes now that he was defence secretary, Streeting said he was not distancing himself from those comments.
“I have expressed very clearly my concerns about Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.. My comments are there. They are published. They are on the record. I am not going to pretend I didn’t make those comments,” he said.
In previously published messages, Streeting had also accused the Israeli government of using the language of ethnic cleansing and behaving like a “rogue state.”
