The UK’s defence secretary, Grant Shapps, is answering a series of questions on Sky News about the Middle East.
He described Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to a Palestinian state as “disappointing”.
He told the Sky News programme Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips:
I think it’s disappointing to hear Benjamin Netanyahu saying he doesn’t believe in a two-state solution. In fairness, he’s said that all of his political career, as far as I can tell.
I don’t think we get to a solution unless we have a two-state solution.
Shapps added the UK “certainly remains wedded to” a two-state solution and that there “isn’t another option”.
Over the weekend, Netanyahu’s spokesperson claimed that in a phone call with Joe Biden, the Israeli leader told the US president that his country’s security needs left no space for a sovereign Palestinian state.
“In his conversation with President Biden, prime minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy that, after Hamas is destroyed, Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty,” a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
France’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, has wrote on X that “Palestinians have the right to sovereignty and statehood”.
The UK’s defence secretary, Grant Shapps, has told BBC News he believes there is no other solution to Israel’s war in Gaza other than an eventual two-state solution (see the comments he gave to Sky News on this here).
Shapps told BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg:
Palestinians deserve a sovereign state, Israel deserves to have the full ability to defend itself, its own security.
Unless you pursue a two-state solution, I really don’t see that there is another solution.
Now, you’ll get a lot of different views within the Israeli government, of course, it is a rainbow coalition.
So we very much distinguish between the views of individuals and our overall support for Israel as a country.
Grant Shapps has been asked about the collision between two Royal Navy warships in a Middle East harbour (footage posted on social media appeared to show HMS Chiddingfold reversing into HMS Bangor off the coast of Bahrain).
He told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “Just as in aviation or many other walks of life sometimes accidents and incidents happen, there’s a full investigation under way.”
Asked if it was incompetence, Shapps added:
We don’t say it’s incompetence when we see an aircraft come down, a very rare occasion just as this would be a rare occasion. It’s right to leave the investigators some time to work out exactly what’s gone wrong.
Something clearly did and we need to see what it is.
Grant Shapps said the UK’s defence spending is below the target of 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP).
“We’re not at 2.5% yet,” the UK’s defence secretary told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips. “We’re comfortably above 2%,” he said, adding: “But we are pledged to, when conditions allow, get to 2.5%.”
Shapps said in December he wanted to see the UK’s defence budget rise by as much as 50% to 3% of economic output.
Grant Shapps said the size of the British army will not fall below 73,000 under the Conservatives, disputing projections that it could eventually sink to 50,000.
The UK’s defence secretary told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that the size of the overall armed forces is about 188,000.
The UK’s defence secretary, Grant Shapps, is answering a series of questions on Sky News about the Middle East.
He described Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to a Palestinian state as “disappointing”.
He told the Sky News programme Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips:
I think it’s disappointing to hear Benjamin Netanyahu saying he doesn’t believe in a two-state solution. In fairness, he’s said that all of his political career, as far as I can tell.
I don’t think we get to a solution unless we have a two-state solution.
Shapps added the UK “certainly remains wedded to” a two-state solution and that there “isn’t another option”.
Over the weekend, Netanyahu’s spokesperson claimed that in a phone call with Joe Biden, the Israeli leader told the US president that his country’s security needs left no space for a sovereign Palestinian state.
“In his conversation with President Biden, prime minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy that, after Hamas is destroyed, Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty,” a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
A total of 25,105 Palestinians have been killed and 62,681 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
An estimated 178 Palestinians were killed and 293 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Royal Navy missiles that have been used to shoot down Houthi drones in the Red Sea will be upgraded, the UK government has said.
The Sea Viper air defence system will get more effective missiles featuring a new warhead and a software update that will enable it to defeat ballistic missile threats, PA media reports.
It will help protect the navy’s carrier strike group and allows tracking, targeting and destruction of a variety of air threats more than 70 miles away.
The £405m upgrade was awarded to the missile systems company MBDA UK.
The contracts will make Sea Viper “the most capable naval air defence system ever developed for the Royal Navy”, the government said as Houthi attacks on ships passing through the Red Sea continued.
In the early hours of 12 January, the US and UK armed forces launched a string of military strikes in Yemen.
The strikes saw 60 targets hit across 28 Houthi-held locations in the west of Yemen, and targeted munitions depots and launching systems, in an effort to limit the rebel group’s ability to launch further attacks.
A Houthi campaign targeting shipping in the southern Red Sea area, in support of Hamas in Gaza, began in mid October, using missiles and drones designed in Iran.
The Houthis, who have the support of Tehran, say they are targeting ships linked to Israel although in practice this has not always been the case.
Hamas’s Qatar-based chief, Ismail Haniyeh, has held a meeting with the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, diplomatic sources have told AFP.
The sources said they met in Turkey on Saturday, in the first official contact between the two since a phone call on 16 October.
One of the sources said the main topics discussed were the establishment of a ceasefire “as quickly as possible” and the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Israel says about 132 hostages remain in Gaza, of whom at least 27 are believed to have been killed, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The source said that during the meeting, the two sides also discussed “increasing humanitarian aid … and a two-state solution for a permanent peace”.
Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground offensive have killed at least 24,927 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the territory.
AFP reports Gaza’s health ministry said at least 165 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours – more than double Friday’s toll.
An AFP correspondent reported gunfire, airstrikes and tank shelling that was especially heavy in Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city.
Witnesses also told AFP that Israeli boats were bombarding Gaza City and other areas in the north early on Sunday.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, at least five people were killed in a strike that hit what the Gaza health ministry said was a civilian car.
Israel’s military also said on Sunday that its soldiers had killed 15 Palestinian gunmen during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip. All these claims are yet to be independently verified.
And in case you are looking for some more in-depth analysis connecting the seemingly disparate Middle East conflicts multiplying across the region, make sure to read our diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour’s take on whether the long-feared moment of escalation born out of the destabilising war in Gaza has arrived.
Of course, not all the dots can be joined, as he notes:
Not all these conflicts are connected, or have their precise roots in Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, and some will be doused. But they at least blend, in part because they reveal a collective erosion of self-restraint and the rule of law. Iran and Pakistan, for instance, behaved – as has the US – as if they had a unilateral right to pursue counter-terrorism operations across national borders.
You can read the full analysis and accompanying timeline here:
In case you missed it earlier, don’t miss Jason Burke’s report on Iran accusing Israel of killing Revolutionary Guards spy chief and three other guard member in Damascus on Saturday.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six people were killed in the Israeli strike on the upmarket Mazzeh neighbourhood in the Syrian capital.
In recent weeks, Israel has been accused of intensifying strikes on senior Iranian and allied figures in Syria and Lebanon, raising fears the war in Gaza could expand into a regional conflict.
You can read the full report here:
Here are some of the latest images from protests held over the weekend around the world:
A US official has told the Reuters news agency that US personnel suffered minor injuries and a member of Iraq’s security forces was wounded in an attack on Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
In a statement, the US military’s Central Command said that the base was hit on Saturday by multiple ballistic missiles and rockets fired by Iranian-backed militants from inside Iraq. The statement did not confirm the extent of any US injuries but said personnel were being evaluated for traumatic brain injury.
Reuters reports:
The US military’s assessment was more severe than initial accounts from security sources in Iraq, who, along with an Iraqi government source, had only reported rocket fire against the base.
Offering a sense of the scale of the attack, Central Command said most of the missiles were intercepted though others hit the base.
“Damage assessments are ongoing,” Central Command said, adding the attack took place at 1830 in Iraq (1530 GMT).
“At least one Iraqi service member was wounded.”
Since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the U.S. military has come under attack at least 58 times in Iraq and another 83 times in Syria by Iran-backed militants, usually with a mix of rockets and one-way attack drones.
The militants are seeking to impose a cost on the United States for its support of Israel against Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Over the weekend, Netanyahu has sparred publicly – if indirectly – with US president Joe Biden, who for months has offered Israel almost unconditional support for its war in Gaza, at considerable political cost to his own administration, both in America and beyond.
Netanyahu’s spokesman claimed that in a phone call with Biden, the Israeli leader told the US president that his country’s security needs left no space for a sovereign Palestinian state.
“In his conversation with President Biden, prime minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy that, after Hamas is destroyed, Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty,” a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
It was a barely veiled shot at Biden, who just hours earlier had said the same conversation left him confident an independent Palestine was feasible when Netanyahu was in power.
Read our full story here:
Welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East crisis – this is Christine Kearney with a rundown on all the latest news.
Benjamin Netanyahu has doubled down on his refusal of a Palestinian state. According to a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister, he claimed in a call with Joe Biden that Israel’s security needs left no space for a sovereign Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, US personnel suffered minor injuries after multiple ballistic missiles and rockets were launched by Iranian-backed militants targeting the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, according to the US central command, Reuters reports.
It added that most of the missiles were intercepted by the base’s air defense systems and that damage assessments remained under way.
More on these stories shortly. In other key developments at just past 8am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:
Over the weekend, UNRWA delivered aid to approximately 90 of its shelters, including 33 in Rafah and 25 in Khan Younis. The crucial aid delivery across Gaza comes as nearly 2 million Palestinians grapple with shortages in food, water, medical supplies and fuel as a result of Israel’s attacks across the strip.
Thousands gathered in Tel Aviv in a massive anti-government protest against Netanyahu and his cabinet’s handling of the hostage crisis and Israel’s war on Gaza. Many waved signs that condemned Netanyahu and called for his resignation as family members of hostages currently held by Hamas demanded their release.
Israeli shelling east of the Jabalia refugee camp killed four Palestinians and injured 21 more, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported. Video posted online showed PRCS staff treating injured Palestinians following the strikes. The PRCS added that it had changed the wound dressings of 65 other individuals.
Senator Bernie Sanders has released the following statement in which he criticizes Netanyahu for his refusal of a Palestinian state: “Despite the illegal and inhumane actions of Netanyahu’s government, President Biden has thus far offered unconditional support to Israel. That must change. President Biden must now loudly and clearly say no to the policies of Netanyahu’s rightwing extremist government.”
Palestinian people’s right to statehood “must be recognized by all”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Uganda on Saturday. “The refusal to accept a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable,” Guterres said.
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2024-01-21 10:06:53Z
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