UK Foreign Secretary Miliband calls for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in first call with Saar

UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has called on Israel to withdraw from Gaza and curb its settlements in the occupied West Bank, in his first meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar.

In a statement posted on X, Miliband said that he told Israel it "must crack down on settler violence and must immediately end blockages on aid into Gaza".

"I reiterated that Hamas must decommission its weapons, the IDF [Israeli military] should withdraw, and that we must see progress on the 20-point plan," the statement added, referring to the ongoing peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas. 

The statement added that the two foreign ministers also discussed what Miliband called the UK and Israel's "vital strategic interest" in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and reiterated the UK's "commitment" to reaching a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Miliband, who was appointed as Foreign Secretary last month by the new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, has faced pressure from backbench MPs within his party to take a tougher stance on Israel's genocide in Gaza, where over 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. 

He is the first person of Jewish descent to hold the role of UK Foreign Secretary since his brother, David Miliband, served in that position from 2007 until 2010. 

This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.

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