DCUK-INTEL
Weekly public intelligence brief on UK foreign & security policies:
For members of Declassified UK only
Issue 135 – Week to 22 February 2024
MIDDLE EAST
Israel/Palestine
- The UK government abstained on a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The US vetoed the resolution, while the other 13 members voted in favour.
- UK parliament adopted a vote on a ceasefire in Gaza, with the Labour party acting toremove claims that Israel is engaged in the “collective punishment” of Palestinians.
- House of Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle was reportedly pressured by the Labour party to allow its amendment to be voted on in favour of that of the SNP.
- A UK parliamentary delegation travelled to the Sinai to report on the conditions in Gaza. One MP said: “Nothing that has been reported braces you for the true scale of the horror in Gaza. We’re simply not getting accurate information about the levels of destruction and brutality”.
- The High Court dismissed a case urging the suspension of UK arms sales to Israel.
- UK defence secretary Grant Shapps confirmed in parliament that Britain will not cut arms sales to Israel.
- Anum Qaisar MP toldparliament that parts of Israel’s F-35 fighter jets are made in British factories. “It is morally corrupt, outrageous, and sickens me to my core that the UK continues to sell arms to Israel”, she said.
- UK foreign secretary David Cameron met with Israeli president Isaac Herzog at the Munich Security Conference. Herzog’s genocidal statements have been used as evidence in South Africa’s case at the ICJ.
- Forensic Architecture releasednew evidence to dispute the Israeli military’s claim that the Al-Ahli hospital “was struck by a misfiring Palestinian rocket”.
- The UK Attorney General visited Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and met with “lawyers for the Israeli Defence Force and the President of the Supreme Court”.
Yemen
- Another UK-registered ship, named Rubymar, was struckby Houthis in the Red Sea.
- Shapps condemned the “reckless” attack by the Houthis, adding that the UK government would make a judgment “based on the reality on the ground” on whether to send more Royal Navy ships to the region.
Iran
- Iran’s foreign spokesman Nasser Kanaani condemnedthe US-UK attacks on Yemen as a “flagrant act of aggression and adventure”, accusing them of issuing “false claims” of not wanting to widen the war in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia
- Labour party leader Keir Starmer and shadow foreign secretary David Lammy metwith Saudi foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan at the Munich Security Conference.
Syria
- British Typhoon jets continued to patrol over Syria and Iraq, providing “critical intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data, as well as engag[ing] hostile targets when necessary”.
EUROPE
Russia
- The UK government said it is working “at pace” on new Russian sanctions following the death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny in prison.
- UK foreign secretary David Cameron also announced an initial round of sanctions “on six officials overseeing the Arctic penal colony” where Navalny was being held.
Sweden
- The British army announcedthat its “close military relationship” with Sweden has been “strengthened” following joint training exercises in Lapland.
ASIA
Afghanistan
- It was found that UK special forces blocked UK resettlement applications from elite Afghan troops, likely due to shared knowledge of SAS engagement in war crimes.
- UK veterans minister Johnny Mercer told a public inquiry that he heard “horrific” accounts from former members of Afghan special forces of the SAS killing unarmed detainees and children.
- Mercer also said he was “desperate” to disprove claims of SAS war crimes in Afghanistan but was unable to do so.
AMERICAS
Argentina
- Cameron visited the Falkland Islands as part of his first visit to the South Atlantic, South America, and New York. He said: “The issue of sovereignty will not be up for discussion” with Argentina.
Paraguay
- Cameron also became the first UK foreign secretary to visit Paraguay.
Canada
- UK trade secretary Kemi Badenoch claimed she was engaged in trade talks with Canada – negotiations which Ottawa subsequently insisted did not happen.
JULIAN ASSANGE
- Julian Assange’s final extradition appeal was heardat the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
- Declassified revealed that Justice Jeremy Johnson, one of the judges who will rule on Assange’s appeal, has previously acted for MI6.
- Declassified also found that the other judge overseeing Assange’s extradition hearing, Dame Victoria Sharp, is closely linked to the British establishment through her father and brother.
- Babar Ahmad spoke to Declassified about what might come next for Assange. “One day in an American prison is like a year in a high-security prison in Britain”, he said.
- Following the death of Navalny, the Foreign Office was askedwhether the UK government will now free its own political prisoners. “There is no equivalence” between the two cases, said Foreign Office minister Leo Docherty.
MILITARY AND INTELLIGENCE
- The UK’s nuclear missile tests failed for the second time in eight years.
- BAE Systems reported a “record order backlog amid wars in Gaza and Ukraine”, saying it had taken £37.7bn in new orders.
- The UK parliament heard that the number of military referrals of UK armed forces personnel to its Prevent programme has risen from 5 in 2018 to 22 in 2023.
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