UK refuses to comment after Israel freezes 'military dialogue and security cooperation'

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has accused Britain of freezing "military dialogue and security cooperation" with Israel, which has not been publicly said before.

He provided no evidence for the extraordinary claim, which if true would mean relations between the two countries had dramatically deteriorated far beyond what has been publicly disclosed.

The British government was evasive when asked by Middle East Eye about Saar's accusation.

Israel's foreign minister made the claim in a statement published on Thursday morning explaining his decision to force Britain to close its consulate in occupied East Jerusalem.

"We did not want to reach this point, but the actions of the UK Labour government brought us here," Saar declared.

He cited "a growing and escalating series of unilateral measures against Israel adopted by the Labour government since taking office in July 2024".

Saar listed several of these measures, including "restrictions on Israel’s official participation in an international defence and security equipment exhibition in Britain; the freezing of military dialogue and security cooperation; the prevention of IDF officers from participating in training at the Royal College of Defence Studies; and repeated, biased and unilateral attacks against Israel in the international arena".

There is no publicly available evidence that Britain has frozen military dialogue or security cooperation with Israel.

When MEE asked the UK's Ministry of Defence about Saar's claim on Thursday, the MoD did not give an answer and referred us to the Foreign Office.

The Foreign Office, meanwhile, declined to respond and instead pointed MEE to UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband's own statement on Thursday, which did not reference military dialogue or security cooperation.

UK's military agreement with Israel

Last month, after sanctioning Israeli settlements, Miliband insisted intelligence cooperation with Israel would continue.

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed last week that shortly before the UK sanctioned Israeli settlements, Israel had privately warned the UK of a planned attack on the US military base in Gloucestershire, RAF Fairford.

The Foreign Office declined to comment on Netanyahu's remarks when approached by MEE last week.

A great deal remains unknown about Britain's military agreement with Israel, which was signed in 2020 but not announced by the British government.

The following year the government said the agreement was "an organising mechanism for our relationship … It will streamline and provide a mechanism for planning our joint activity, allowing collaboration on a number of areas that will include defence medical training, organisational design concepts and defence education".

But successive governments have refused calls from MPs to publish the agreement.

The other accusations Saar made in Thursday's statement have been publicly known.

These include that the UK recently banned Israeli officials from its leading arms fair and prevented members of the Israeli military from training at the Royal College of Defence Studies.

Israel and Britain have historically been close intelligence partners, and the UK shared intelligence from surveillance flights over Gaza with Israel throughout its genocide.