Ex-minister slams UK inaction on Gaza onslaught

Ex-minister slams UK inaction on Gaza onslaught
Sun Aug 10, 2014 10:24:07

Former UK minister of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs Sayeeda Warsi has accused British officials of failing to defuse the conflict in the Gaza Strip, calling for an arms embargo on Israel.

Warsi said in interviews with British media that Chancellor George Osborne and Chief Whip Michael Gove have failed to use their “very, very close” relations with Tel Aviv to de-escalate the conflict.

In addition, Warsi defended her decision to step down, saying “long after politics has come and gone, I want to be able to live with myself and by resigning and stepping down, I can live with myself.”

The former cabinet minister also dismissed Osborne’s remarks that her resignation had been “unnecessary,” saying if the chancellor would have taken action, then she would not have needed to step down.

“My actions would not have been necessary if he had done what he should have done, which is pick up the phone to people he is incredibly close to and say: ‘It’s unnecessary for you to meet your ends by taking out power stations, taking out homes, taking out schools and killing kids on beaches’,” said Warsi.

In addition, she called for on an arms embargo on Israel and urged Prime Minister David Cameron’s government to “recognize Palestine as a state.”

Warsi described Britain’s 2012 decision to refrain from recognizing a Palestinian state in a vote in the UN General Assembly as symptomatic of the problems.

“There is no point in us talking about a two-state solution if we don’t do the simple things like recognizing Palestine in the way that the majority of the world has at the UN,” said Warsi.

On August 5, Warsi, who was Britain’s first Muslim woman cabinet minister, resigned over Cameron’s “morally indefensible” failure to condemn the sufferings in Gaza.

More than 1,900 people, including women and children, have been killed and nearly 10,000 others injured by the Israeli regime’s war on Gaza, which began on July 8.

NTJ/HH

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