UK Foreign Secretary: We will follow 'due process' if Netanyahu visits

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on Monday that Britain would "follow due process" if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the country, commenting on the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for the latter on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"We are signatories to the Rome Statute and we always abide by our obligations under international law and international humanitarian law," Lamy said at a G7 meeting in Rome when asked whether London would implement the arrest warrant.

"Of course, if such a visit to the UK takes place, there will be a judicial process and due process will be followed in relation to these cases," he added.

The British government had previously hinted that it could arrest Netanyahu under the arrest warrant issued against him if he travelled to the United Kingdom.

"There is a clear legal process that needs to be followed. The government has always been clear that it will meet its legal obligations," Prime Minister Keir Starmer's spokesman told reporters.

"The UK will always meet its legal obligations as set out in domestic and international law," he added, but declined to give a specific view on the Israeli prime minister.

On November 22, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The arrest warrants also included the commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Mohammed Deif.

Source: Al Jazeera + Reuters