US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will submit a long-awaited report to the US Congress on Friday which, according to Axios, is highly critical of Israel’s conduct during the Gaza war, but assesses that Israel didn’t violate the human rights stipulations required to access US weapons.
In February, the Biden administration issued a new national security memorandum that put in place humanitarian safeguards on US weapons exports.
As a result, the State Department was required to produce an assessment of potential legal and humanitarian violations for seven countries that access US weapons.
The State Department had initially set a May 8 deadline to submit the report to congress, but has subsequently delayed it a few days, claiming that the delay was largely technical.
The White House’s Middle East advisor, Brett McGurk, told members of a number of Middle East think tanks on Thursday that the report will be submitted to Congress on Friday, according to people who attended the briefing.
A State Department official said that it is a possibility, but added that it could still change.
The preparation of the report has, according to US officials, reportedly sparked heated debate within the halls of the State Department.
The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, alongside USAID, recommended an assessment that Israel violated the terms of the national security memorandum.
However, US ambassador to Israel Jack Lew and the US Gaza envoy, David Satterfield, sent a memo to Blinken stating that Israel isn’t violating international law, reports Axios.
They argue that while Israel did previously restrict humanitarian aid, they changed their policy in recent weeks, following an ultimatum that President Biden presented to Benjamin Netanyahu in April.
According to Axios, the report will describe the situation in “very critical terms,” listing a series of incidents which may indicate international legal violations. However, the report will ultimately side with the position of Lew and Satterfield that Israel isn’t currently violating Biden’s national security memorandum.
