Former Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf has heavily criticised David Cameron after Middle East Eye revealed on Monday that the former UK foreign secretary privately threatened to defund and withdraw from the International Criminal Court if it issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
Cameron, then foreign secretary in Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government, made the threat in April 2024 in a heated phone call with Karim Khan, the British chief prosecutor of the court.
“It is shameful that Lord Cameron allegedly threatened the ICC for having the audacity to do their job,” Yousaf, who was the Scottish first minister when Cameron made the threat, told MEE on Tuesday in a significant intervention.
“He should immediately come clean and apologise if this was indeed the case.
“These revelations show that the UK Government, under both the Conservatives and Labour, are complicit in the atrocities we are witnessing in Gaza.”
Yousaf strongly opposed the Conservative government’s support for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and called for an arms embargo on Israel in February 2024.
Members of his wife’s family were in Gaza when the war began in October 2023.
Cameron, a former British prime minister, was appointed foreign secretary in November 2023.
Yousaf, a member of the Scottish National Party, served as Scotland’s first minister from March 2023 to May 2024.
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