The number of UK nationals flown back from the Middle East since the start of the conflict with Iran reached 100,000 on Tuesday, Britain’s foreign secretary has said.
This is a third of the 300,000 who were in the region at the outset of hostilities, Yvette Cooper told parliament, many of whom were stuck when airspace was closed. The figure included tourists and Gulf residents who have temporary left.
However, she was urged by fellow MPs to help many British citizens who were still stuck in the region and those who were said to be struggling to get extensions for visas in the countries where they had gone on holiday before the US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Cooper also provided an update on Britain’s part in discussions which could see an international coalition involved in opening the strait of Hormuz, adding that this was “separate from the conflict”.
“The focus at the moment is what the practical measure might be to ensure shipping can be restored as the conflict subsides and so Iran cannot continue with the long term ability to hold hostage the global economy,” she said. Britain was in talks with European allies including Germany, Italy and France, as well as with the US and Gulf states.
“Because it is an international shipping lane, multiple nations need to be involved in planning the way forward. And our discussions will continue to reflect serious, expert military and commercial assessments about what is credible and feasible so that commercial shipping can return as soon as possible as the conflict subsides.”
The Conservative shadow foreign secretary, Priti Patel, pressed Cooper on what specific commitments Britain had made to Gulf states about helping them protect British bases and allies in the region
“The way in which our friends and close security partners who host British armed forces have been subject to outrageous, unprovoked aggression has been painful to watch. Britain cannot stand by while our allies do the heavy lifting to protect us all,” said Patel.
Cooper replied the UK was providing Gulf countries “with direct military defensive support”, with F35 and Typhoons in the region.
In a wide-ranging statement, she condemned the killing by Israeli forces of a Palestinian couple and their two children in the occupied West Bank, settler expansion in the same area and warned that Lebanon was “on the precipice of a widening conflict that risks disastrous humanitarian consequences”.
Calling for urgent diplomatic talks, she said that the UK was announcing a further £10m of humanitarian support to provide emergency medical care, shelter and other life saving assistance in Lebanon and the region.
The behaviour and comments of Donald Trump was cited by the Conservative MP and committee chair, Simon Hoare, who asked Cooper if she agreed with him that the US president was becoming “an increasingly unreliable and erratic partner”. He asked her if it was right for the UK to be strategically skeptical and questioning of his motives and pronouncement.
Cooper replied: “Our focus needs to be on the substance of that relationship and the real issues, not on rhetoric or statements.”
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