Sa’ar speaks with UK’s far-right Nigel Farage, thanks him for slamming settlement sanctions

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar posts on X that he spoke to Nigel Farage, leader of Britain’s far-right Reform UK party, to thank him for opposing sanctions on West Bank settlements imposed by the UK government.

“I thanked him for his and his party’s support for Israel,” Sa’ar writes. “He told me he was pleased to have addressed the Reform Friends of Israel event at the party conference in Birmingham last week, and assured me unequivocally that, in government, Reform UK would reverse the damage done to the UK-Israel relationship by the Labour Government and its policies.”

Britain’s government announced yesterday a ban on imports from Israeli settlements, accusing settlers of “ethnic cleansing” through a surge of attacks on Palestinians.

France and Canada also said they were imposing trade curbs on Israeli settlements.

In response, Farage says a Reform government “would undo the damage caused by Labour.”

But he also says that he raised with Sa’ar the issue of the Falklands, the British islands in the South Atlantic over which Argentina’s President Javier Milei has stepped up his country’s claims.

“I emphasized the Falklands issue to him and its importance to the British people, though I understand Israel’s relationship with President Milei,” Farage says.

Various Israeli leaders and commentators, including far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to recognize Argentinian sovereignty over the Falklands in retaliation for British sanctions.