Cameron floats prospect of UK recognition of Palestinian state

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron. (File/AFP)
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron. (File/AFP)
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Updated 30 January 2024
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Cameron floats prospect of UK recognition of Palestinian state

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron. (File/AFP)
  • Foreign secretary suggests move could come before agreement with Israel in bid to reach peace deal
  • Cameron to travel to Oman this week amid heightened regional tensions

LONDON: The UK could expedite recognition of a Palestinian state in a bid to bring peace to the region, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron has said.

Ahead of a visit to the Middle East, he told a reception held by the Conservative Middle East Council in Westminster that the Palestinian people need to see “irreversible progress” toward a two-state solution.

“As that happens, we — with allies — will look at the issue of recognizing a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations,” he told attendees. “That could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible.”

He added, though, that recognition would require a new Palestinian government with “technocratic and good leaders” to be “stood up quickly” to bring order to the Gaza Strip.

Last week, Cameron met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem in a bid to get him to consider a two-state solution to resolve the current crisis, but the latter claimed that the plan would “endanger the state of Israel” and called it an “attempt to coerce us.”

Cameron, though, hinted that the UK and others could press ahead regardless of Israel’s stance.

“Together with that, almost most important of all, is to give the Palestinian people a political horizon so that they can see that there’s going to be irreversible progress to a two-state solution and crucially the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said.

“We have a responsibility there because we should be starting to set out what a Palestinian state would look like, what it would comprise, how it would work and crucially, looking at the issue.”

Progress would be dependent on Hamas releasing all hostages held in Gaza, a guarantee not to attack Israel, and the group’s leadership leaving the Palestinian enclave, Cameron said, adding that it would be “difficult” to achieve but that he remains “hopeful.”

He told the meeting: “There’s a path that we can now see opening up where we really can make progress, not just in ending the conflict, but progress in finding a political solution that can mean peace for years rather than peace for months.”

Cameron added: “That’s the prize we should be looking for, and more than that, not just how you go from pause to sustainable ceasefire, but how you go from there to a set of political moves and arrangements that could start to deliver the longer-term political solution.”

He criticized Israel for failing to provide security to its citizens and for preventing British aid from reaching people in Gaza.

“If the last 30 years tells us anything, it’s a story of failure,” he said. “Ultimately it’s a story of failure for Israel because yes, they had a growing economy, yes they had rising living standards, yes they invested in defense and security and walls and the rest of it, but they couldn’t provide what a state most wants, what every family wants, which is security.

“And so the last 30 years has been a failure, and it’s only by recognizing that failure and recognizing that true peace and progress will come when the benefits of peace and progress are greater than the benefits of returning to fighting.”

Cameron will travel to Oman later this week amid continued clashes in the Red Sea as the Houthis maintain attacks on commercial and military vessels.

The US and UK have kept up missile strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen after a British-linked oil tanker was attacked on Friday. 

Meanwhile, fears continue of broader regional escalation after three US troops were killed in Jordan at the weekend in a drone attack conducted by an Iran-backed militia.

“The Houthis continue to attack ships in the Red Sea, risking lives, delaying vital aid getting to the Yemeni people and disrupting global trade,” Cameron said.

“We can’t ignore the risk that the conflict in Gaza spreads, spilling over borders into other countries in the region.

“We’ll do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen — escalation and instability is in nobody’s interests. In Gaza, there’s an urgent need for an immediate pause to allow aid in and hostages out.

“We’re determined to do all we can to press for a sustainable ceasefire, and are stepping up our engagement with countries in the region to make sure that happens.”


2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA
Updated 4 sec ago
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2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA
  • The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night
Yabad: The Palestinian Authority said two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, were killed during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank village of Yabad.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night, leading to clashes during which soldiers shot dead two Palestinians.
The two dead were identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Muhammad Rabie Hamarsheh, 13, and Ahmad Mahmud Zaid, 20.
“Overnight, during an IDF (Israeli army) counterterrorism activity in the area of Yabad, two terrorists hurled explosives at IDF soldiers. The soldiers responded with fire and hits were identified,” an Israeli military source told AFP.
Last week, the Israeli army launched several raids in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing nine people, most of them Palestinian militants.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 last year after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 777 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike
Updated 18 min 31 sec ago
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Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike
  • The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday
  • Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army on Monday said it had struck a Hezbollah command center in the downtown Beirut neighborhood of Basta in a deadly air strike at the weekend.
“The IDF (Israeli military) struck a Hezbollah command center,” the army said regarding the strike that the Lebanese health ministry said killed 29 people and wounded 67 on Saturday.
The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday, leaving a large crater, AFP journalists at the scene reported.
A senior Lebanese security source said that “a high-ranking Hezbollah officer was targeted” in the strike, without confirming whether or not the official had been killed.
Hezbollah official Amin Cherri said no leader of the Lebanese movement was targeted in Basta.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign, later sending in ground troops against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The war followed nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the Gaza war.
The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September this year.
On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.


HRW says Israel strike that killed 3 Lebanon journalists ‘apparent war crime’

HRW says Israel strike that killed 3 Lebanon journalists ‘apparent war crime’
Updated 42 min 13 sec ago
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HRW says Israel strike that killed 3 Lebanon journalists ‘apparent war crime’

HRW says Israel strike that killed 3 Lebanon journalists ‘apparent war crime’

BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch said on Monday an Israeli air strike that killed three journalists in Lebanon last month was an “apparent war crime” and used a bomb equipped with a US-made guidance kit.
The October 25 strike hit a tourism complex in the Druze-majority south Lebanon town of Hasbaya where more than a dozen journalists working for Lebanese and Arab media outlets were sleeping.
The Israeli army has said it targeted Hezbollah militants and that the strike was “under review.”
HRW said the strike, relatively far from the Israel-Hezbollah war’s main flashpoints, “was most likely a deliberate attack on civilians and an apparent war crime.”
“Information Human Rights Watch reviewed indicates that the Israeli military knew or should have known that journalists were staying in the area and in the targeted building,” the watchdog said in a statement.
HRW “found no evidence of fighting, military forces, or military activity in the immediate area at the time of the attack,” it added.
The strike killed cameraman Ghassan Najjar and broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda from pro-Iran, Beirut-based broadcaster Al-Mayadeen and video journalist Wissam Qassem from Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television.
The watchdog said it verified images of Najjar’s casket wrapped in a Hezbollah flag and buried in a cemetery alongside fighters from the militant group.
But a spokesperson for the militant group said he “had no involvement whatsoever in any military activities.”
HRW said the bomb dropped by Israeli forces was equipped with a United States-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit.
The JDAM is “affixed to air-dropped bombs and allows them to be guided to a target by using satellite coordinates,” the statement said.
It said remnants from the site were consistent with a JDAM kit “assembled and sold by the US company Boeing.”
One remnant “bore a numerical code identifying it as having been manufactured by Woodard, a US company that makes components for guidance systems on munitions,” it added.
The watchdog said it contacted Boeing and Woodard but received no response.
In October last year, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed by Israeli shellfire while he was covering southern Lebanon, and six other journalists were wounded, including AFP’s Dylan Collins and Christina Assi, who had to have her right leg amputated.
In November last year, Israeli bombardment killed Al-Mayadeen correspondent Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih Maamari, the channel said.
Lebanese rights groups have said five more journalists and photographers working for local media have been killed in Israeli strikes on the country’s south and Beirut’s southern suburbs.


Boat carrying 31 tourists sinks near Egypt’s Marsa Alam: reports

Boat carrying 31 tourists sinks near Egypt’s Marsa Alam: reports
Updated 53 min 22 sec ago
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Boat carrying 31 tourists sinks near Egypt’s Marsa Alam: reports

Boat carrying 31 tourists sinks near Egypt’s Marsa Alam: reports

CAIRO: A boat carrying 31 tourists sank near Egypt's Marsa Alam, located on the western shore of the Red Sea, local media reported Monday. 

Red Sea Governor Major General Amr Hanafy said that an aircraft and naval units were able to transport several tourists to receive the necessary medical care.

Hanfy pointed out that the search operations are underway to save others. 

 

 


Iraq’s population reaches 45.4 million in first census in over 30 years

Iraq’s population reaches 45.4 million in first census in over 30 years
Updated 25 November 2024
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Iraq’s population reaches 45.4 million in first census in over 30 years

Iraq’s population reaches 45.4 million in first census in over 30 years
  • Prior to the census, the planning ministry estimated the population at 43 million
  • The last census, conducted in 1997, did not include the Iraqi Kurdistan region

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s population has risen to 45.4 million, according to preliminary results from a national census, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said on Monday.
The census, conducted on Nov. 20, was Iraq’s first nationwide survey in more than three decades, marking a crucial step for future planning and development.
Prior to the census, the planning ministry estimated the population at 43 million.
The last census, conducted in 1997, did not include the Iraqi Kurdistan region, which has been under Kurdish administration since the 1991 Gulf War.
It counted 19 million Iraqis and officials estimated there were another 3 million in the Kurdish north, according to official statistics.