Scottish government calls for arms embargo on Israel over Gaza attacks

Alex Salmond will today back calls for the United Kingdom government to impose an arms embargo on Israel following its military actions in Gaza, ahead of his live TV debate on Scottish independence with Alistair Darling.

The demand comes after former Foreign Office minister Baroness Warsi dramatically quit the government over David Cameron's "morally indefensible" position on the Middle East conflict and called for Britain to stop selling weapons to Israel.

The Huffington Post UK has learned that the Scottish cabinet approved the position at a meeting on Tuesday morning. The Scottish government's external affairs minister Humza Yousaf will announce the move to the Scottish Parliament this afternoon.

The foreign and defence policy of Scotland is set by the Westminster government.

In a statement Yousaf said he condemned Hamas rocket attacks but said Israeli government's response has been "heavily disproportionate as is evident by the mounting civillian death toll".

"The UN has said that there is a strong possibility that violations of international law have occurred and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon described the shelling of a UN school in Rafah recently as a 'criminal act'," he said.

"With mounting evidence of possible violations of international law the UK must ensure that it is not complicit in the killing of innocent civillians through its supply of arms. There must be an immediate embargo an arms sales to Israel and an investigation into whether or not UK arms supplies might have been used in violations of international law. more

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