Foreign secretary also calls on Arab states to accept that Hamas leaders responsible for 7 October attack must leave the territory
David Cameron has urged Hamas to agree to a deal for a sustained 40-day ceasefire in Gaza and the release of potentially thousands of hostages and prisoners.
The foreign secretary also challenged Arab states to accept that the Hamas military leadership responsible for the attack on 7 October must leave Gaza.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary’s use of Embraer Lineage 1000 follows £348,000 bill for James Cleverly’s eight-day trip in similar plane in 2023
David Cameron has been criticised for hiring a luxury jet worth an estimated £42m for a recent tour of central Asia.
The foreign secretary travelled on the Embraer Lineage 1000 for a five-day visit to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia last week, the Mirror reported.
Continue reading...Prime minister also seeks to assure allies Israel’s response to Iran will be measured, as officials urge him to focus on ceasefire deal
Benjamin Netanyahu has told western diplomats that he will go ahead with a ground offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza, and has also suggested that Israel’s anticipated reprisal for Iran’s missile and drone salvo will be aimed at Iranian interests rather than Tehran’s proxies.
The Israeli leader has sought to assure anxious allies that Israel’s response to Iran will be measured, while also claiming he will flood Gaza with aid and ensure that civilians and aid agencies are given ample opportunity to flee Rafah, the last relative refuge for at least 1.4 million displaced Palestinians.
Continue reading...How much should Britain get involved in the conflict in the Middle East? The Guardian’s John Harris is joined by the columnist Gaby Hinsliff and former national security adviser Peter Ricketts to talk about the fallout from Iran’s attack on Israel at the weekend. Plus, John talks to Gaby about smoking bans, NatCon and Liz Truss’s new book
Archive: Sky News, BBC News
Continue reading...UK foreign secretary is probably first non-Israeli politician to admit military reprisal is inevitable but urges Israel not to escalate
David Cameron has said it is clear Israel is “making a decision to act” in response to last weekend’s Iranian mass drone and ballistic missile attack, as Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off calls for restraint and said his country would make its own decisions about how to defend itself.
Lord Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, speaking on a visit to Jerusalem, said he hoped the Israeli response would be carried out in a way that minimised escalation.
Continue reading...Iran’s chargé d’affaires in London said his country would respond more severely if Israel attacked it again in ‘another mistake’
Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to trap the west into a total war across the Middle East that would have incalculable consequences for the region and the world, Iran’s top diplomat in the UK has claimed, in his first interview since Tehran launched an unprecedented missile and drone attack against Israel at the weekend.
Seyed Mehdi Hosseini Matin also warned that if Israel made “another mistake” by launching an attack on Iran, there would be a response from Iran that was stronger, more severe, and administered without a warning like that issued before the weekend attack.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak’s authority suffers blow as several Conservatives vote against bill, which clears first Commons hurdle with 383 votes to 67
At 12.30pm a transport minister will respond to an urgent question in the Commons tabled by Labour on job losses in the rail industry. That means the debate on the smoking ban will will not start until about 1.15pm.
Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, is one of the Britons speaking at the National Conservatism conference in Brussels starting today. The conference, which features hardline rightwingers from around the world committed to the NatCons’ ‘faith, flag and family’ brand of conservatism, is going ahead despite two venues refusing to host them at relatively short notice.
The current UK government doesn’t have the political will to take on the ECHR and hasn’t laid the ground work for doing so.
And so it’s no surprise that recent noises in this direction are easily dismissed as inauthentic.
Any attempt to include a plan for ECHR withdrawal in a losing Conservative election manifesto risks setting the cause back a generation.
Continue reading...British PM says he will speak to Netanyahu to express solidarity and discuss how further escalation can be avoided
UK general election opinion poll tracker: Labour leading as election looms
David Cameron ruled out trying to become PM again in an interview this morning. (See 9.30am.) But Liz Truss has not done so. In an interview with LBC’s Iain Dale, being broadcast tonight, she did not entirely dismiss the possibility. This is from LBC’s Henry Riley.
Truss is giving interviews to publicise her memoir which is out this week. According to extracts sent out in advance, she also confirmed in her LBC interview that she wanted to see Donald Trump win the US presidential election. She said:
I don’t think [Joe] Biden has been particularly supportive to the United Kingdom. I think he’s often on the side of the EU. And I certainly think I would like to see a new president in the White House …
The thing I would say about Donald Trump is, because I served as secretary of state under both Trump and Biden, and Trump’s policies were actually very effective. If you look at his economic policies, and I met his regulatory czar, I travelled around the United States looking at what he’d done. He cut regulation, he cut taxes, he liberated the US energy supply. And this is why the US has had significantly higher economic growth than Britain.
Continue reading...The UK foreign secretary’s Trump dinner appeared to fail to bring support for Ukraine, and his Washington meetings don’t look any more promising
Whatever happened at Mar-a-Lago between David Cameron and Donald Trump on Monday night, was clearly going to stay in Mar-a-Lago.
Dinner at the Trump Florida residence was always going to be a stiff test of the UK foreign secretary’s influence over the former president, presidential candidate, and the man he had previously referred to variously as protectionist, xenophobic, and misogynistic.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary says Britain’s position on export licences is ‘unchanged’ after reviewing latest legal advice
David Cameron has confirmed the UK government will not suspend arms exports to Israel after the killing of seven aid workers in an airstrike on Gaza last week, as he insisted the UK would continue to act within international law.
The foreign secretary said that he had reviewed the most recent legal advice about the situation on the ground but this left the UK’s position on export licences “unchanged”.
Continue reading...British foreign secretary talked with Republican presidential candidate following Trump’s repeated questioning of US aid to Ukraine
Russia and China will continue to cooperate in the fight against terrorism as part of their ever-strengthening relationship, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in Beijing on Tuesday after talks with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi.
“I thank the Chinese side for their condolences in connection with the terrorist attack in the Moscow region on March 22 of this year, for supporting Russia’s fight against terrorism,” Russian news agencies cited Lavrov as saying.
Continue reading...Move to join US-led maritime corridor follows international fury at last week’s killing of seven aid workers
The Royal Navy was ordered into action on Saturday to help supply desperately needed aid to Gaza, as the foreign secretary, David Cameron, warned that the Palestinian people trapped there were on the brink of famine.
With the UK and US governments under intense pressure to halt arms sales to Israel, Downing Street said on Saturday that ministers would instead boost support for a planned new maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza, to channel “life-saving aid” by sea to a population in urgent need of basic food supplies.
Continue reading...Former prime minister says a western arms embargo on Israel would ‘hand victory’ to Hamas
Boris Johnson has said banning arms sales to Israel would be “insane”.
The former prime minister also criticised the foreign secretary, David Cameron, for remaining silent on the debate over curtailing UK arms sales to Israel.
Guardian Newsroom: Crisis in the Middle East
On Tuesday 30 April, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont, Emma Graham-Harrison and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the fast-developing crisis in the Middle East. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live
Conservative supporters of Israel want David Cameron to dial back criticism and accept defeat of Hamas is in UK’s interest
A legal assessment by the UK Foreign Office of whether Israel is in breach of international humanitarian law in Gaza risks being subsumed in a Conservative row over the party’s loyalty to the country, and by rival judgments on the damage to British interests in the wider Middle East if the UK is not seen to distance itself from Israel’s methods.
Judging by the last Tory leadership contest, in which Liz Truss courted votes by promising to transfer the UK embassy to Jerusalem, there is a good chance Israel will feature in any leadership debate after a predicted general election defeat this year.
Continue reading...Allies will plan for ‘greater Nato role in coordinating security assistance and training’, says Nato secretary general
They have become a familiar sight in the skies above parts of Russia: long-range enemy drones, buzzing their way to another target.
In the biggest Ukrainian onslaught inside Russian territory since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion two years ago, Ukraine has in recent weeks carried out a series of attacks on Russian oil refineries and ports. On Tuesday, it hit a refinery and drone factory in the industrial region of Tatarstan - more than 800 miles from the border.
Allied support to Ukraine is a fraction of the resources needed for deterrence and defence of North Atlantic area and yet the successful defence of Ukraine greatly impacts the overall cost of Nato’s defence.
Serious long-term support of Ukraine requires predictable, equitable and robust allocation of resources.
Continue reading...Chair of foreign affairs select committee Alicia Kearns said at a Tory fundraiser that legal advice would mean the UK has to cease all arms sales to Israel without delay
• Analysis: scale of suffering will make war crimes harder to deny
The British government has received advice from its own lawyers stating that Israel has breached international humanitarian law in Gaza but has failed to make it public, according to a leaked recording obtained by the Observer.
The comments, made by the Conservative chair of the House of Commons select committee on foreign affairs, Alicia Kearns, at a Tory fundraising event on 13 March are at odds with repeated ministerial denials and evasion on the issue.
Continue reading...Ministers under growing pressure to act amid signs Israel intends to ignore UN ceasefire resolution
Parliamentary pressure is building on the UK government to ban arms sales to Israel, amid signs that Israel intends to ignore the UN security council resolution passed this week calling on all sides to commit to a ceasefire.
A letter signed by more than 130 parliamentarians to the foreign secretary, David Cameron, highlights action taken by other countries, most recently Canada, which last week announced it would halt all arms exports to Israel.
Continue reading...Drawing on his years at No 10, the UK foreign secretary is happy to ruffle feathers on the international stage while setting the agenda
It is only four months since Rishi Sunak brought him back into government as foreign secretary but already, having felt the pace quicken around them, officials and diplomats have given David Cameron their own title: prime minister for external affairs.
“Cameron is on a whole other level,” said one diplomat on the inside. “Before, we had [Boris] Johnson, we had [Dominic] Raab, we had [Liz]Truss and then [James] Cleverly. Cameron can read a room – he immediately sees the elephant in it, if there is one. He constantly comes back on summonses and wants to know: ‘When can I get more on this? When can I get an update on that?’”
Continue reading...Labour presses foreign secretary as human rights groups seek judicial review of government’s refusal to ban arms exports
The shadow UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has urged David Cameron to publish the Foreign Office formal legal advice on whether Israel is breaching international humanitarian law in Gaza.
Lammy’s move comes as two human rights groups have been given permission for an oral hearing to seek a judicial review of the government’s refusal to ban arms exports to Israel.
Continue reading...UK’s foreign secretary is in Australia alongside defence secretary Grant Shapps for high-level talks with Richard Marles and Penny Wong
The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has suggested the Aukus pact and Nato alliance must get into “the best possible shape” to increase their chances of surviving Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House.
Speaking after high-level talks in Australia, Cameron was careful to avoid criticising the former US president and presumptive Republican nominee for 2024, saying it was “up to America who they choose as their president”.
Continue reading...