MP ‘sorry for poor communication’ after he credited group with improving safety in Afghanistan
A senior Conservative MP has apologised and deleted a video in which he praised the Taliban and credited them with improving safety in Afghanistan.
Tobias Ellwood said he was “sorry for my poor communication” after his actions outraged fellow Tory MPs and military veterans, and an attempt was launched to challenge his role as chair of the Commons defence select committee.
Continue reading...Report from rightwing thinktank calls for tougher sanctions on Iran as October expiry of UN sanctions looms
The October expiry of UN sanctions limiting Iran’s missile programme must become a hard deadline for the UK to adopt a tougher policy that includes proscription of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a rightwing thinktank has warned.
The report from the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) is the second from a right-of-centre thinktank in two days demanding tougher action on Iran, and suggests that the UK ministers’ preferred strategy of introducing an Iran-specific sanctions regime that could lead to sanctions for activities outside Iran has fallen flat with Tory hawks.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Yvette Cooper to tell RUSI thinktank that economic security and national security go hand in hand
Contractors linked to hostile foreign powers such as China will be targeted by a new security taskforce if Labour wins the next general election.
In a joint initiative from the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, and the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, the new body will aim to anticipate risks to Britain’s national security.
Continue reading...Saudi heir’s official visit would be first since he was accused of being behind killing of Jamal Khashoggi
The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been invited to the UK on an official visit in late autumn, the first such visit by the heir to the Saudi throne since he was accused of masterminding the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and dissident.
Numerous UK ministers have been to Saudi Arabia in the interim, and senior Saudi ministers have also come to the UK, including the foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
Continue reading...Comments come after Ukrainian leader complained his country had not been given firm timetable for joining alliance
Britain’s defence secretary and the US national security adviser have suggested Ukraine ought to show more gratitude for the help it has received from the west, in response to Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s complaints that his country has not been issued a firm timetable or set of conditions for joining Nato.
Their unscripted remarks – at two different events on the margins of the second day of the Nato summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius – appeared to prompt a change of tack from the Ukrainian leader on Wednesday, who later said he was “grateful to all leaders of Nato countries” for their support and help.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president’s frustration threatened to overshadow meeting – and did not go unnoticed by other leaders
It was, by the standards of international summits, an undiplomatic intervention. A clearly frustrated Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted that Nato allies were showing Ukraine disrespect, that they were discussing his country’s hopes of joining the military alliance without him. “It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to Nato nor to make it a member of the alliance,” he wrote.
The outburst was certainly last minute, coming less than an hour before Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and Nato other’s 29 leaders were due to sign off a final summit declaration on the topic. It turned out to be a communique that did not spell out a timeline by which Ukraine could join, nor a list of conditions it would have to meet, nor even extend an invitation to join at an unspecified future date once the war with Russia is over.
Continue reading...Leaders of military alliance sign off on declaration that does not give Ukraine firm membership timetable
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has failed in a last-ditch effort to secure an invitation for Ukraine to join Nato after leaders of the 31 countries signed off on a declaration that did not give a firm timetable or clear conditions for its eventual membership.
The frustrated Ukrainian president had accused Joe Biden and other leaders present at a summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, of showing disrespect and complained that there was “no readiness” to invite his country to join.
Continue reading...Shadow foreign secretary to accuse Conservatives of treating international law with cavalier disrespect
Labour will restore the UK’s tarnished global reputation by backing a global anti-corruption court and by reinstating a requirement to follow international law in the ministerial code, the shadow foreign secretary will say in a speech on Monday.
David Lammy says the measures will restore the country’s reputation for keeping its word, as well as going some way to undo the damage caused by Conservative party scandals in recent years.
Continue reading...Prime minister rules out following controversial US move but says he will urge allies to increase other aid
Rishi Sunak has ruled out supplying Ukraine with cluster bombs, saying the UK will not follow the Biden administration’s controversial move and will instead press countries to boost their aid to Kyiv “in other ways”.
On Friday, Joe Biden defended what he said was a “difficult decision” to send widely banned cluster munitions to Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government. Human rights groups criticised the White House and there was unease among some Democrats, with one calling it “unnecessary and a terrible mistake”.
Continue reading...‘Expected’ return could help retain scientists and researchers lost after grants were cancelled in Brexit row
British scientists and academic researchers will be able to reapply to the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) for grants if, as expected, the UK rejoins the flagship Horizon European programme, it has been confirmed.
The re-entry comes almost a year after 115 grants approved for British candidates were terminated by the council because of the delay in ratifying the UK’s associate membership of the £85bn Horizon funding scheme.
Continue reading...Expected return also greeted with dismay at UK’s decision to avoid being a net contributor to EU’s flagship programme
Scientists including the physicist Brian Cox have reacted with a mixture of caution, anger and relief that the UK appears set to rejoin the EU’s flagship £85bn Horizon science research programme after a protracted Brexit row.
Sources indicate that an announcement could come in days, possibly next week when Rishi Sunak is scheduled to meet the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, at a Nato summit.
Continue reading...Diplomat says accord could collapse if European signatories retain restrictions on weapon development
The UK, France and Germany should stick to the terms of the Iran nuclear deal and lift sanctions on Iranian missile development, Tehran’s chargé d’affaires to London has said.
Speaking on the eve of a UN security council debate on Iran, Mehdi Hosseini Matin said on Wednesday that such a breach would lead to the collapse of the deal, known as the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA). It would, he added, also affect the atmosphere around recent bilateral talks in Oman between Iran and the US to secure a separate mini-agreement covering the release of US prisoners, maintaining aspects of the nuclear deal and the release of Iranian assets frozen abroad.
Continue reading...More than 100 signatories express concern in letter to foreign secretary over lack of progress in case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah
More than 100 MPs and peers have written to the foreign secretary to express concern over the lack of progress to free a jailed British-Egyptian activist.
It comes seven months after the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, shook hands with Egypt’s president, Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, while Alaa Abd el-Fattah was close to death due to a hunger strike.
Continue reading...Rebel group of 50 have voiced objections to the bill designed to stop public bodies boycotting Israel
As many as 50 Conservative MPs are threatening to rebel against a government measure due to be debated on Monday that would impose fines on public bodies, including local councils, that seek to mount boycotts against Israel.
The proposal – piloted by the communities secretary, Michael Gove – is a Conservative manifesto commitment, and has caused divisions in both main parties, highlighting the controversy surrounding the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
Continue reading...Decision by UK and other European powers comes amid uncertainty over future of 2015 agreement
The UK and other European powers are expected to announce plans to breach the 2015 Iran nuclear deal for the first time when they confirm they are not going to lift sanctions on Tehran’s use of missiles this October as required in the agreement.
Donald Trump took the US out of the nuclear deal in 2018, but Germany, France and the UK remained inside the deal, even though Iran responded to the US walkout by breaching the agreed limits on the quality and quantity of enriched uranium. Iran is closer to producing weapons-grade uranium than ever before.
Continue reading...Pavel Fuks, a Ukrainian who made a fortune in Russia and is under investigation for fraud, was granted special visa for the rich in 2012
An oligarch who made a fortune in Russia and is under Ukrainian sanctions has UK residency after being granted a special visa for the rich.
Pavel Fuks, a Ukrainian national who had sanctions imposed in 2021, is also under criminal investigation for fraud and tax evasion in his home country. But the Guardian has established that Fuks, known as a regular at an exclusive Mayfair restaurant, was granted a so-called golden visa in 2012, followed by indefinite leave to remain in the UK in 2017. “It’s effective as of today,” his spokesperson said.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Dropping promise to restore Department for International Development would follow series of U-turns
Keir Starmer is considering dropping a promise to reinstate the Department for International Development (DfID), prompting anger from senior Labour figures and high-profile names in the international development world.
The Labour leader promised last year to restore the department, which was scrapped in 2020 by Boris Johnson, who called it a “giant cashpoint in the sky”.
Continue reading...Party to use opposition debate to call for workable proposals, saying Moscow must pay for destruction in Ukraine
Labour has made a partial break from the government over its Ukraine policy by demanding ministers come up with a plan to freeze Russian assets within 90 days. It is also demanding a deadline is set after which it will be a criminal offence to fail to disclose information about the whereabouts of Russian assets.
Labour, which has been reluctant to make public any differences with the government over the Ukraine war, has decided to put pressure on ministers, believing other countries are ahead of the UK with plans to seize Russian assets.
Continue reading...Liu Jianchao accused of directing fugitive recovery operations targeting regime’s opponents
A cross-party group of British MPs and peers has written to the prime minister urging him to reconsider a decision to allow a visit this week by a senior Chinese government official accused of overseeing the forcible repatriation of hundreds of dissidents back to China, including some from the UK.
Liu Jianchao, the head of the international department of the Communist party of China central committee, is due to speak at the Chatham House thinktank and meet UK parliamentarians.
Continue reading...Michael Gove quoted as saying council-level sanctions undermine UK foreign policy and lead to antisemitic abuse
A government bill aimed at banning councils from imposing boycotts on Israeli goods is expected to be presented next week.
The proposed legislation will prevent public bodies from adopting their own approach to international relations, including through sanctions and divestment campaigns.
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