The Tory chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee has questioned the prime minister’s criticism of John Kerry’s recent comments on Israel.
Kerry, the outgoing US secretary of state, delivered a robust speech this week that criticised Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as the “most rightwing coalition in Israeli history” and said the rapid expansion of settlements in the occupied territories meant that “the status quo is leading toward one state and perpetual occupation”.
Crispin Blunt said Theresa May was focusing on a “narrow point” and expressed concerns that she was doubting Kerry’s analysis, which he described as “completely on the money”.
The prime minister’s spokesman said on Thursday that May did not think it was appropriate to make such strongly worded attacks on the makeup of a government or to focus solely on the issue of settlements.
Blunt said it appeared she had chosen to position herself closer to the US president-elect, Donald Trump, who is pro-Israel. “I have absolutely no idea what was behind No 10 briefing in the way that they did,” the MP told BBC Radio 4’s World At One.
“My only concern is it would seem to indicate that there might be something wrong with John Kerry’s analysis in their view. In my judgment there isn’t, it was an extremely fine speech. It was obvious in that sense it’s his probably last serious speech on this issue in office.
“And no one can complain about the enormous efforts that John Kerry went to to try to find a way forward on this conflict, which is at the root of so much of the issues in the Middle East.”
A US state department spokesman said of May’s comments: “We are surprised by the UK prime minister’s office statement given that Secretary Kerry’s remarks – which covered the full range of threats to a two-state solution, including terrorism, violence, incitement and settlements – were in line with the UK’s own longstanding policy and its vote at the United Nations last week.
“We are grateful for the strongly supportive statements in response to Secretary Kerry’s speech from across the world, including Germany, France, Canada, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and others.”
The UK backed the UN resolution passed last week that condemned the continued expansion of settlements, but May’s spokesman said she was concerned about the language Kerry had used.
“We continue to believe that the construction of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories is illegal, which is why we supported UN security council resolution 2334 last week,” he said.
“But we are also clear that the settlements are far from the only problem in this conflict. In particular, the people of Israel deserve to live free from the threat of terrorism, with which they have had to cope for too long.”
