Foreign Secretary statement on the Middle East
Source: gov.uk (2025-08-31)

Foreign Secretary statement on the Middle East delivered to Parliament on 1 September 2025.

With permission Madam Deputy Speaker, I will make a statement on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

On the ground, it is unimaginably bleak.

Horrifying images and accounts will be seared into the minds of colleagues across this House.

They are almost impossible to put into words.

But we can and must be precise with our language.

Because on 22 August, the UN-backed IPC mechanism confirmed what we are witnessing:

Famine. Famine in Gaza City.

Famine in its surrounding neighbourhoods, now spreading across the wider territory.

Famine which, unchecked, will spiral into widespread starvation.

Madam Deputy Speaker, this was foreseen.

The terrible conclusion of the obstacles we have warned about for over six months.

Since 1 July, over 300 people have died from malnutrition, including 119 children.

More than 132,000 children under the age of five are at risk of dying from hunger by June of next year.

Madam Deputy Speaker, this is not a natural disaster.

It is a man-made famine, in the twenty-first century.

I am outraged by the Israeli government’s refusal to allow sufficient aid.

We need a massive, massive humanitarian response to prevent more deaths, crucial NGOs, humanitarians and health-workers allowed to operate, and stockpiles of aid on Gaza’s borders released.

As a result, in the past three months over two thousand Gazans have been killed trying to feed their families.

And Hamas themselves are exploiting the chaos and deliberately starving Israeli hostages for abhorrent political purposes.

Madam Deputy Speaker, I know that these words of condemnation, echoed across legislatures all over the world, are not enough.

But be in no doubt: we have acted, as a country, where we can.

We restored funding to UNRWA.

We suspended arms exports that could be used in Gaza.

We signed a landmark agreement with the Palestinian Authority.

We stood up for the independence of international courts.

We have delivered three sanctions packages, three, on violent settlers and far-right Israeli Ministers for incitement.

We suspended trade negotiations with the Israeli Government.

We are at the forefront of the international community’s work to plan for a stable, post-conflict peace

And we have provided nearly over £250m in development assistance over the past two years.

Madam Deputy Speaker, today we are going further.

I can announce an additional £15m of aid and medical care for Gaza and the region. We continue to work, alongside regional partners, including Egypt and Jordan, of course, to enable the UN and NGOs to ensure aid reaches those in need.

Brave medics in Gaza tell us that essential medicines are running out and they cannot operate safely.

That’s why we are funding UK-Med, whose field hospitals have treated over 600,000 Gazans.

That’s why we are also funding WHO Egypt to treat thousands of evacuated Gazans.

Meanwhile, Madam Deputy Speaker, as my Right Honourable Friend, the Home Secretary said, we are working with the World Health Organisation to get critically ill and injured children into the UK where they will receive specialist NHS treatment.

The first patients are expected to arrive in the UK in the coming weeks.

We are extracting people from a war-zone is complex and dangerous.

It relies entirely on Israeli permissions.

I am pressing the Israeli Government for this to happen as quickly as possible.

As the Home Secretary announced earlier today, we are also supporting brilliant students granted FCDO Chevening scholarships to escape Gaza so that they can take up their places for the coming academic year.

Madam Deputy Speaker, I recognise that this only touches the edges of this catastrophe.

We all know there is only one way out.

An immediate ceasefire. An immediate ceasefire that would see the unconditional release by Hamas of all hostages. An immediate ceasefire that would see a transformation in the delivery of aid.

We know this.

Our US and European allies know it.

Our Gulf partners know it.

I am working night and day with them to deliver a ceasefire and a wider political process to deliver long-term peace.

To make a ceasefire last, we need a monitoring mechanism, we need the disarmament of Hamas and a new governance framework for Gaza.

This is the focus of our intense diplomacy in the region.

In contrast, further Israeli military operations in Gaza city will only prolong and deepen the crisis.

So, together with our partners, we demand an immediate halt to this operation.

Each week brings new horrors.

Last week’s double strike on Nasser hospital – one of Gaza’s last remaining major health facilities – killed 20 people, including five journalists.

I remind Israel once again that international law requires the protection of healthcare workers, journalists and civilians.

These actions will not end the war.

They will not bring the hostages home, let alone make them safer – as hostage families have recognised.

They will sow despair and anger across the region for generations.

Madam Deputy Speaker, in the West Bank, the Israeli government is tightening its stranglehold on the Palestinian economy and continues to approve illegal settlement construction just recently in the E1 area east of Jerusalem.

This would erect a physical barrier to a contiguous Palestinian state.

It must not happen.

Madam Deputy Speaker, in July I described before the UN General Assembly our intention to recognise the State of Palestine later this month, unless the Israeli Government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza and commits to a long-term sustainable peace.

Madam Deputy Speaker, this commitment responds to the current crisis but stems from our historic responsibility to the region’s security, reaching back over a century to the Balfour declaration.

As I said last month in New York, I am deeply proud that it was a British Foreign Secretary who helped establish a homeland for the Jewish people.

But the same declaration promised that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights’ of the Palestinian people.

Madam Deputy Speaker, those rights are more under threat than at any point in the past century.

To those who say recognition rewards Hamas or threatens Israeli security – it does neither.

Recognition is rooted in the principle of a two-state solution which Hamas rejects.

We have been clear that any Palestinian state should be demilitarised.

Indeed, President Abbas has confirmed this in writing.

We see no contradiction between the two-state solution and our deep commitment to Israeli security.

Because security comes from stable borders, not indefinite occupation.

Madam Deputy Speaker, before I finish, I would also like to update the House on Iran.

On 28 August, the UK, along with France and Germany, triggered the “snapback” mechanism under the UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

This means that if no [new] agreement is reached within 30 days, the sanctions that were lifted under the Iran nuclear deal – the JCPoA – will come back into force.

These wide-ranging sanctions include a full arms embargo and restrictions on its nuclear, missile and drone programme.

This was not a decision we took lightly.

For years, we have worked with international partners to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

The 2015 deal was meant to do just that.

But Iran has repeatedly undermined the agreement.

Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is now 40 times over the limit set by the JCPOA.

Despite this clear escalation, we have made every effort over years of negotiations to bring Iran back to compliance.

These efforts have continued in recent months.

I have urged Foreign Minister Araghchi to de-escalate and choose diplomacy.

In July, we offered Iran more time if it agreed to return to negotiations with the US and restore full access to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Last month, I warned Iran that time was short and we would have little choice but to trigger snapback.

I regret to inform the House that Iran has not complied with its legal obligations nor chosen the path of diplomacy.

So, we have had no choice but to act.

I have long been clear that I will not allow snapback to expire without a durable and comprehensive deal.

It would be unacceptable to allow this issue to fall off the UN Security Council agenda despite the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear programme.

But snapback is not the end of diplomacy, Madam Deputy Speaker, as Secretary Rubio has also recently underlined.

Iran can still meet our conditions.

It can restore full IAEA access, it can address our concerns about its stockpile and enrichment, and return to negotiations.

Alongside our partners, I will continue to urge Iran to choose this path.

Madam Deputy Speaker, in the worst of times, this Government will continue to take all steps we can, to alleviate suffering, to help bring regional conflict to an end, to create the conditions for long-term peace and security.

We will not rest until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, the hostages are returned and a flood of aid reaches those in desperate need.

And, despite the obstacles before us, we will work with partners to preserve the two-state solution.

I commend this statement to the House.