#uk-foreign-policy

#uk-foreign-policy

The foreign secretary reiterated the UK government's position, stating, 'As the prime minister has made clear we will provide defensive support against these reckless Iranian threats but we have not been - and we continue not to be - involved in offensive action.'

I don't want to get involved in UK politics, but I can say that it has been disappointing. It has been very disappointing... we would have expected the UK to do much more.

Two jets out of the four sent to Qatar have been allocated specifically to help Bahrain intercept incoming drones, as the US-Israel war with Iran has entered its second week. It comes as Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper landed in Saudi Arabia on Thursday amid continued concern about Iranian threats to the Strait of Hormuz - a key artery for commercial shipping.

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It was clear for weeks that the UK did not want to become part of any initial attack by the US and Israel on Iran, judging it to be illegal under international law, because Tehran posed no imminent threat to the UK.

"The Kremlin had the means, motive, and opportunity. Make no mistake - they are capable of shocking acts of violence, and we must stay prepared," Cooper declared. The warning comes as the UK and EU allies unite to expose Russia's barbaric actions, following joint lab testing that confirmed Navalny was poisoned with a lethal dart-frog toxin while in a Siberian prison.

These decisions and moves by the UK, say analysts, raise doubts about whether its words are in keeping with its actions in the Horn of Africa. Amgad Fareid Eltayeb, a Sudanese policy analyst, said the UK's credibility is increasingly judged by the risks it is willing, or unwilling, to take. When people believe your words and your actions diverge, they stop treating you as a broker and start treating you as an interest manager, he told Al Jazeera.

There's a huge amount of work to do we won't be one of the signatories today, because this is about a legal treaty that raises much broader issues, and we do also have concerns about President Putin being part of something which is talking about peace, when we have still not seen any signs from Putin that there will be a commitment to peace in Ukraine. And to be honest, that is also what we should be talking about.

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Matt Western, a Labour MP and chair of parliament's joint committee on the UK government's national security strategy, warned: The United States consensus that has led the western world since the second world war appears shattered. The prospect of United States interference in the democratic politics of Europe, I believe, is chilling, Western said, adding: The absence of condemnation for Russia is extraordinary, though not surprising. He warned that the US pivot leaves the United Kingdom especially vulnerable.

Labour Party Chair Anna Turley accused Farage of "panicking and desperately trying to backtrack" on his views about Putin. Turley said Farage "can't help himself" and was "still peddling the Russian line on their illegal invasion of Ukraine being the fault of the West," in the interview with Bloomberg's Mishal Hussein. "Putin doesn't have to pay Nigel Farage to spout Russian talking points - he does it for free."

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

Its conclusion is unsurprising, with few states in history having been so brazen about their intentions. To take just two examples: in May, the Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said that Gaza will be entirely destroyed; a week later, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted that Israel is destroying more and more houses [in Gaza, and Palestinians accordingly] have nowhere to return.

Britain is not just complicit in Israel's breaches of humanitarian law in Gaza but a participant that has repeatedly ignored its legal obligation to prevent a genocide, witnesses have told the independent Gaza tribunal. The two-day tribunal in London, which is independent of government and parliament, is seeking to amass evidence of Britain's failure to distance itself from what the tribunal organisers regard as Israeli war crimes amounting to genocide.

Sir Keir Starmer has a notable contrast between public remarks and private views regarding a Ukrainian peace process, emphasizing support for Zelensky and condemnation of Putin.

An adviser suggested that the UK would have been better off avoiding involvement in the Second World War and that Britain should not support Ukraine against Russia.

The UK's foreign secretary expressed horror at the targeting of starving Palestinians by the Israeli military, highlighting the need for humanitarian aid and potential sanctions.

Keir Starmer recently expressed optimism about U.S. non-involvement in conflicts, believing that efforts for de-escalation were effective, but events rapidly shifted with a significant U.S. strike.

Lammy emphasized that the key focus was on military targets and indicated that Western allies were awaiting assessments of the strikes' impact on Iran's nuclear capabilities.