WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to travel to Britain on Monday, the State Department said, a week after Britain suspended some arms export licenses with Israel over equipment that could be used in the war in Gaza.
On the trip scheduled for Tuesday, Blinken will open the U.S.-U.K. Strategic Dialogue, “reaffirming our special relationship,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Saturday.
Blinken will also meet with senior administration officials to discuss issues including the Indo-Pacific, the AUKUS defense pact between the United States, Australia, Britain and the Middle East, and collective efforts to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Britain said on Sept. 2 it would immediately suspend 30 of its 350 arms export licenses with Israel, saying there was a risk such equipment could be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law in Israel’s war with Hamas in the densely populated Palestinian enclave of Gaza.
The administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running to succeed him, is under pressure from critics of the war to suspend some arms shipments to Israel, Washington’s closest ally in the Middle East. A U.S. official said in July that the Biden administration would resume sending 500-pound bombs to Israel but would continue to curb supplies of 2,000-pound bombs over concerns about their use in Gaza.
CIA Director William Burns, the chief U.S. negotiator for ending the Gaza war, said in London on Saturday that a more detailed ceasefire proposal would be presented in the coming days.