Campbell comments on reports of munitions transit via UK

8.52.40pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 27th Jul 2006

Commenting on reports that the British government will make a formal complaint to the United States over the alleged use of Prestwick airport for transiting bombs to Israel over the weekend, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Menzies Campbell said "Any alliance must be based on trust, even one as intimate as that between the United States and the United Kingdom.

"If these reports are true, it is particularly provocative for the United States to have acted in this way.

"It can only reinforce the belief of many that Britain is taken for granted in the so-called special relationship.

"Who knows how many of these munitions may be used to cause the kind of damage to Lebanon which the Prime Minister of that country described in Rome as cutting his country to pieces.

"One way of ensuring restraint on the part of Israel would be to cut off the supply of arms and equipment."