Human rights activists scheduled a demonstration yesterday at a British airport where a US flight with a hazardous cargo bound for Israel is due to land to refuel, an organizer of the rally said.
A US-chartered plane bound for Tel Aviv was scheduled to touch down at Prestwick Airport, near Glasgow, Scotland yesterday -- a day after a similar flight used the same airport, Britain's Civil Aviation Authority said.
The demonstrations come amid fierce criticism of Britain's apparent cooperation in the transport of missiles to the Jewish state during its bombing campaign in Lebanon.
US President George W. Bush has apologized for two earlier flights that stopped at Prestwick and had failed to declare they were carrying missiles to Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said.
Blair has denied Britain has acted inappropriately and dismissed critics who have called for a ban on US military aircraft landing on British airfields.
"What happens at Prestwick Airport is not going to determine whether we get a ceasefire in the Lebanon," Blair told Britain's Sky News in an interview on Saturday.
"If what people are saying is that we should impose an arms embargo on Israel or indeed on the US, I think that would be very curious indeed," he told BBC television.
The Civil Aviation Authority said the flights on Saturday and yesterday were bound for Tel Aviv from Texas and confirmed special exemption permits had been requested and granted for hazardous materials aboard.
The authority is investigating whether Washington applied for similar exemptions to carry hazardous material on two chartered Airbus A310 cargo planes that recently refueled at Prestwick Airport.
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