Trump’s former national security adviser warns UK will harm relationship with US if it imposes arms embargo on Israel

The UK government could find itself on the outs with the US if it imposed an arms embargo on Israel, former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien says.

O’Brien, who served under former president Donald Trump from September 2019 until January 2021, is reported by the Guardian as having warned that if Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government follows through with a decision it is examining to suspend licenses for arms exports to Israel, there would be “potential for a serious rift” with the US, regardless of who the president is.

The UK should “tread very carefully,” he told the Policy Exchange think tank. “The consequences of an arms embargo on Israel is something the UK really needs to think about at a time when Russia and China are posing a massive threat to the West.”

Such a move would almost certainly lead to the US Congress enforcing a counter-embargo that would see it stop supplying the UK with weapons, O’Brien warned.

In addition, the UK’s involvement in the production of F-35 fighter jets could be endangered, he said.

“The F-35 is a joint project and it is going to continue to go to Israel no matter what Turkey, the UK or any other country has to do with it,” said O’Brien, who remains a close ally of Trump. “You would hate to see a situation where the UK is no longer a partner in the F-35 project or other advanced platforms because of a very ill-advised arms embargo on Israel.”

During the same meeting with Policy Exchange, the former national security adviser said the UK should reverse its decision to remove its objection to ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the Guardian adds.

“For the ICC to go after Israeli leaders is a joke … The UK should take every step necessary to shut it down,” he said, reportedly calling the international body “an impediment to peace in the region.”