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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

UK trade envoy visits Israel despite freeze in talks on free trade agreement

2025-06-01

[IsraelTimes] Ian Austin’s trip to Haifa reportedly did not include meetings with Israeli officials, only businesses

The UK’s trade envoy to Israel visited Haifa this week, the British embassy said, despite London cutting off trade talks with Jerusalem in protest of Israeli policies in its war against Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
The envoy, Ian Austin, was in Haifa visiting a customs scanning center, the local port, the Haifa-Nazareth light rail project, and the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology, the UK Embassy in Israel posted on X.

Austin’s visit came only days after British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that the UK would be suspending free trade agreement negotiations with Israel and taking other punitive measures, including the imposition of sanctions on West Bank settlers, in response to Israel’s wartime policies.

Crossed wires, non-communications, or the hope that the entie situation will soon be resolved so he can do his job?

The announcement followed comments by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday that he was "horrified" by Israel’s expanded ground campaign in Gaza.

Nobody likes Sir Keir anymore. How soon until he is voted out of office?

The UK government defended Austin’s visit, saying that while the free trade agreement talks had been suspended, the UK still seeks to maintain existing business relationships, the Financial Times reported.

Possibly Israel will decide to do unto them back, like President Trump did to China.

"We suspended talks with Israel on a new FTA because it is not possible to advance discussions with a Netanyahu government pursuing such egregious policies in Gaza and the West Bank," a statement said. "Lord Austin is in Israel this week in his capacity as trade envoy to maintain our relationship with Israeli businesses."

According to the Financial Times, Austin was in Israel until Friday and did not hold any meetings with government officials during his stay.

Austin did not provide a comment to the Financial Times.

Austin, a former member of the Labour Party, quit the faction in 2019 during the leadership of anti-Israel politician Jeremy Corbyn, because of what he said was an internal "culture of extremism, antisemitism and intolerance."

And now? Sir Keir took the Labour Party away from Jeremy Corbyn on a platform of Jew-positivity, among other issues, but that pretense has clearly ended.

The UK and Israel began negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement to bolster bilateral trade in July 2022, working off a 2019 UK-Israel trade continuity agreement. In July 2024, the UK’s new Labour government announced its intention to resume FTA talks with Israel, making it one of the six FTAs the government committed to restarting.

That was back when Sir Keir loved the Jews and Israel.

Israel sees the UK as its fourth-largest provider of foreign direct investment, with $1.13 billion invested in 2023, according to data shared by the British Embassy in Israel in March.

Posted by:trailing wife

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