Israel leaders said they had not told the three Baltic states that they would be denied permission to transfer Israeli weapons to Ukraine, Lithuanian Parliament Speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen has said.
This week, Čmilytė-Nielsen visited Israel, where she met with the country’s president Isaac Herzog and parliament members.
Read more: Israel would block Baltics’ weapon transfers to Ukraine – media
Before her visit, Breaking Defence reported that in December, Tel Aviv issued “an almost unheard-of preemptive denial” to prevent the Baltic states from sending Israeli-made weapons to Ukraine.
According to Lithuania’s parliament speaker, such information was “categorically” denied during her visit to Israel.
“In meetings with Israeli politicians – the speaker and members of the Knesset, the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence – I have raised the issue of the information that has emerged,” Čmilytė-Nielsen told LRT.lt.
“I have been assured that this information does not correspond to reality and that Israel has not handed over any demands to the Baltic states in relation to weapons,” she added.
According to Čmilytė-Nielsen, she did not raise the question of whether the Baltic states actually could transfer Israeli-made weapons to Ukraine without hindrance, should the need arise.
“I did not ask such a question […], but it is clear that Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are free to decide according to their perception of the threat that is now emerging in Ukraine,” she said.
In January, the US State Department allowed Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to transfer American-made lethal weapons to Ukraine.
Lithuania will hand over Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine in the coming days, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said on Thursday during her visit to Ukraine.
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