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Clegg: 'Govt Mulls Israel Arms Export Halt'

Nick Clegg has indicated the Government is to announce a suspension of Britain's £42m of arms export licences to Israel if it resumes its attacks on Gaza.

The Deputy Prime Minister said ministers were working on taking tougher action and that he hoped there would be an announcement shortly.

It comes after Foreign Office Minister Baroness Warsi resigned over David Cameron's failure to take a harder line against Israel over the month-long conflict, which has seen nearly 2,000 Palestinians, mainly civilians, killed.

Britain has signed off on exports from 130 defence manufacturers to Israel since 2010 for items such as drone parts, ammunition and armoured vehicles.

These are being used by the Israeli military in Operation Protective Edge, the mission to curtail the ability of Hamas to continue launching rockets on Israel from Gaza.

Lady Warsi's shock decision to quit earlier this week unleashed a torrent of criticism over the UK's position on the crisis in Gaza, particularly the licences that British defence manufacturers have to supply Israel with weapons.

Mr Clegg said he backed the former foreign office minister's concerns about arms export licences and he would work with Business Secretary Vince Cable, whose department administers them, to resolve the issue.

Speaking on his LBC radio show Call Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister said: "I think it is crystal clear that it would be unacceptable to the British people and wholly wrong for us to do anything other than immediately suspending any existing licences if that ceasefire were to come to an end and violence were to break out again."

He added: "This is something we are discussing in Government right now and I hope we can make an announcement, I believe we will be able to issue a sort of tougher approach to all of this, which can give the British public confidence that we stick to the rules by which these licences are issued."

International law means arms exports licences should not be given where the weapons are used to cause mass humanitarian suffering.

The Government said at the weekend that it was to review licences allowing the export of ammunition, drones and armoured vehicles to Israel. It said no new licences have been issued since Israel launched its military operation on July 8.

Lady Warsi resigned on Tuesday, saying the Government's "approach and language" during the month-long conflict in Gaza had been "morally indefensible".