UK appears to backtrack on suggestion Israel was to blame for wheelchair access issue

A minister has said he was “deeply disappointed and frustrated” that an Israeli energy minister could not access the COP26 venue yesterday due to lack of wheelchair provision.

James Cleverly, the foreign office’s minister for Middle East & North Africa expressed his dismay via Twitter this morning.

However earlier today environment secretary George Mr Eustice implied that the Israeli delegation were at fault, saying to telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that: “What would normally happen in this situation is that Israel would have communicated that they had that particular need for their minister.

“There was obviously something that went wrong in this instance and they weren’t aware of that so they hadn’t made the right provisions at that particular entrance she was coming too,” he went on.

Israel’s energy minister Karine Elharrar was unable to enter the conference yesterday due to lack of wheelchair access.

She waited outside the Glasgow venue for two hours before returning to her hotel in Edinburgh, according to the Times of Israel.

Yesterday Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett threatened to boycott the summit on Tuesday if Elharrar was once again unable to enter.