LONDON: The UK’s attorney general will not agree to ban the sale of weapons to Israel unless it can be proved they will be used to break international law.

Richard Hermer, the government’s most senior legal adviser, intervened after Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced a review into the granting of licenses to export weapons amid fears they could be used in Gaza.

Lammy suggested that “offensive” weapons would not be sold to Israel, but left room for the export of “defensive” equipment, criteria which have proved difficult for Foreign Office officials to establish.

He was expected to announce changes to arms export licensing to Israel in Parliament before the summer recess, but this has been delayed as Hermer insists on a high burden of proof that weapons systems could be in breach of the law before decisions are taken.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also said to be closely involved in the decision-making process.

A source with knowledge of the process told The Guardian: “International humanitarian law is vague but it does say we need to show we have considered every possibility. That’s why the main holdup here is legal, not diplomatic.”

The High Court in London last week received over 100 pages of testimony from a group of lawyers over alleged Israeli crimes committed during its military campaign in Gaza, including claims of torture.

However, allegations that Israel might use British-made weapons to break international law in Gaza have caused controversy in Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to be upset by the suggestion, and with fears mounting that conflict could escalate into Lebanon in the coming weeks.

The UK government appears, meanwhile, to have suspended granting new arms export licenses to Israel while the review is ongoing, with applicant businesses reportedly receiving messages from the Department for Business and Trade saying applications are not being processed for the time being.

That has not stopped a significant amount of dissent over previous and current sales, with one UK diplomat based in the Republic of Ireland quitting his job earlier this month, claiming the UK government had sold weapons to Israel while it perpetrated “war crimes in plain sight.”

A Foreign Office spokesperson told The Guardian: “This government is committed to upholding international law. We have made clear that we will not export items if they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.

“There is an ongoing review process to assess whether Israel is complying with international humanitarian law, which the foreign secretary initiated on day one in office. We will provide an update as soon as that review process has been completed.”

PARIS: Russian-born tech entrepreneur Pavel Durov has founded wildly popular social networks as well as a cryptocurrency, amassed a multi-billion-dollar fortune and locked horns with authorities not just in Russia but around the world.
Still a few months shy of his 40th birthday, the man once dubbed the “Russian Zuckerberg” after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg now finds himself under arrest in France after being sensationally detained at a Paris airport this weekend.
While still in his 20s, the Saint Petersburg native shot to fame in Russia after founding the VKontakte (VK) social network which catered to the needs of Russian-language users and outgunned Facebook throughout the former USSR.
After disputes with the Russian authorities and ownership battles, he sold out of VKontakte and founded a new messaging service called Telegram which rapidly gained traction but has also proved controversial with critics condemning an alleged lack of control on extreme content.
As these dramas raged, Durov remained a mercurial and at times mysterious figure, rarely giving interviews and restricting himself to sometimes enigmatic declarations made on Telegram.
A self-avowed libertarian, Durov has championed confidentiality on the Internet and encryption in messaging.
He has defiantly refused to allow the moderation of messages on Telegram, which allows users to post video, pictures and comments on “channels” that can be followed by anyone.
Durov, 39, was targeted in France by a warrant over offenses alleged to have been conducted on Telegram, ranging from fraud to drug trafficking, cyberbullying and organized crime, including promoting terrorism and fraud.
Investigations have been entrusted to the cyber unit of the French gendarmerie and the national anti-fraud office. He was still in police custody on Sunday, according to two sources close to the case.
In 2006, having just graduated from the University of Saint Petersburg, Durov launched VKontakte (VK), attracting users even while its founder remained a shadowy figure.
In a stunt typical of his unpredictable behavior, Durov in 2012 showered high-denomination notes on pedestrians from VK’s headquarters on top of a historic bookstore on Saint Petersburg’s Nevsky Prospekt.
But after running into trouble with the Kremlin for refusing to hand over the personal data of users to the Russian security services (FSB), he sold out of the company and left Russia in 2014.
Durov resigned from VK with a typical flourish, posting a picture of dolphins and the slogan “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish,” a title in the famous “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” science fiction series.
He developed the Telegram messaging service with his brother Nikolai while traveling from country to country and launched the service in 2013.
He settled in Dubai and obtained citizenship of the Caribbean island archipelago of Saint Kitts and Nevis, then, in August 2021, won French nationality following a low-profile procedure about which Paris remains highly discreet.
Meanwhile, Telegram enjoyed stratospheric success, presenting itself as a champion of individual freedoms, refusing “censorship” and protecting the confidentiality of its users.
This rankled with authorities, especially in his home country and in 2018, a Moscow court ordered the blocking of the application. But the imposition of the measure was shambolic and three days later, protesters ironically bombarded the FSB headquarters with paper planes, the symbol of Telegram.
Since then, Russia has abandoned its efforts to block Telegram and the messaging service is used by both the Russian government and the opposition, with some channels boasting several hundred thousand subscribers.
Telegram also plays a key role in Russia’s war against Ukraine, documented by bloggers from both sides who post their analyzes and videos of the fighting.
Pro-Moscow channels run by so-called “Z-bloggers” who back the war have proved hugely influential and are sometimes critical of Russian military strategy.
Durov eschews traditional media interviews but in April sat down with ultra-conservative US journalist Tucker Carlson for an extensive discussion.
People “love the independence. They also love the privacy, the freedom, (there are) a lot of reasons why somebody would switch to Telegram,” Durov told Carlson.
He is also not shy of posting messages on his own Telegram channel, claiming to lead a solitary life, abstaining from meat, alcohol and even coffee. Always dressed in black, he cultivates a resemblance to the actor Keanu Reeves in the film “Matrix.”
In July, he boasted of being the biological father of more than 100 children thanks to his sperm donations in a dozen countries, describing this as a “civic duty” in an attitude to parenting that echoes that of a fellow tech mogul, the X and Tesla chief Elon Musk.
According to Forbes magazine’s latest estimate, Durov’s fortune is $15.5 billion. But toncoin, the cryptocurrency he created, has plummeted by more than 15 percent since the announcement of his arrest.
Telegram has long been in the sights of European judicial authorities over allegations it spreads conspiracy theories, shared calls for murder and hosts drug sales platforms. Durov, however, insists that he responds to every request to remove content calling for violence or murder.