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UK Seeks Balanced Position on Israel and Gaza, Says New Foreign Minister Lammy
Britain’s newly appointed Foreign Secretary David Lammy leaves Downing Street, following the results of the election, in London, Britain, July 5, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Toby Melville
Britain wants a balanced position on the war in the Middle East and will use diplomatic efforts to ensure a ceasefire is reached and hostages held by Palestinian terror group Hamas are released, its new foreign minister David Lammy told Reuters.
Lammy is on a visit to Germany, his first international trip following the Labour Party’s thumping victory in Britain’s election on Friday, which ended 14 years of Conservative government and propelled Keir Starmer to power as prime minister.
“The time has come for the United Kingdom to reconnect with the outside world,” Lammy said in an interview in Berlin.
“I want to get back to a balanced position on Israel and Gaza. We’ve been very clear that we want to see a ceasefire… We want to see those hostages out.”
He added: “The fighting has to stop, the aid has got to get in, and I will use all diplomatic efforts to ensure that we get to that ceasefire.”
Lammy did not elaborate.
The Labour Party suffered significant election setbacks in areas with large Muslim populations in the election on Friday amid discontent over its position on the war in Gaza, despite a landslide victory in the parliamentary vote.
Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza gathered momentum on Friday after Hamas made a revised proposal on the terms of a deal, and Israel said negotiations would continue into next week.
Lammy also said Britain would seek to reset its position globally on issues including the climate crisis as well as key relationships, such as with European and emerging powers.
“Let us put the Brexit years behind us … there’s much that we can do together,” Lammy said, pointing to a previously floated idea of a UK-EU security pact.
Lammy will on Sunday travel to Poland and Sweden, where he will focus discussions on areas including cooperation on NATO and the war in Ukraine, Britain’s foreign office said.
The post UK Seeks Balanced Position on Israel and Gaza, Says New Foreign Minister Lammy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Kurdish-led SDF Say Five Members Killed During Attack by Islamic State in Syria
Islamic State slogans painted along the walls of the tunnel was used by Islamic State militants as an underground training camp in the hillside overlooking Mosul, Iraq, March 4, 2017. Photo: via Reuters Connect.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Sunday that five of its members had been killed during an attack by Islamic State militants on a checkpoint in eastern Syria’s Deir el-Zor on July 31.
The SDF was the main fighting force allied to the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated Islamic State in 2019 after the group declared a caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State has been trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia. Deir el-Zor city was captured by Islamic State in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.
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Armed Groups Attack Security Force Personnel in Syria’s Sweida, Killing One, State TV Reports
People ride a motorcycle past a burned-out military vehicle, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes, and government forces, in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria, July 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Armed groups attacked personnel from Syria’s internal security forces in Sweida, killing one member and wounding others, and fired shells at several villages in the violence-hit southern province, state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Sunday.
The report cited a security source as saying the armed groups had violated the ceasefire agreed in the predominantly Druze region, where factional bloodshed killed hundreds of people last month.
Violence in Sweida erupted on July 13 between tribal fighters and Druze factions. Government forces were sent to quell the fighting, but the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops in the name of the Druze.
The Druze are a minority offshoot of Islam with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Sweida province is predominantly Druze but is also home to Sunni tribes, and the communities have had long-standing tensions over land and other resources.
A US-brokered truce ended the fighting, which had raged in Sweida city and surrounding towns for nearly a week. Syria said it would investigate the clashes, setting up a committee to investigate the attacks.
The Sweida bloodshed last month was a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, after a wave of sectarian violence in March that killed hundreds of Alawite citizens in the coastal region.
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Netanyahu Urges Red Cross to Aid Gaza Hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he spoke with the International Red Cross’s regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.