UK leader Starmer to hold urgent govt talks on Gaza peace plan

LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will on Tuesday recall his ministers from recess for urgent talks on a Gaza peace plan that could pave the way for the recognition of a Palestinian state.

Starmer is believed to have presented the plan to US President Donald Trump when the pair met in Scotland on Monday.

Trump said Monday that the US and its partners would help set up food centres to feed the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza facing what UN aid agencies have warned is a deadly wave of starvation and malnutrition.

But the UK plan is reported to be focused more on achieving a sustainable peace, and outline the conditions that need to be met for London to recognise the State of Palestine.

The UK has so far said “there can be no role for Hamas”, and the Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday the conditions could include the agreement of a ceasefire and release of Israeli hostages.

The move would follow Emmanuel Macron’s announcement last week that France would become the first G7 nation to recognise Palestine.

Starmer is under pressure from his party’s MPs and members to make a similar move, which was included in the Labour party’s election-winning manifesto last year.

Trump said Monday that “I don’t mind him (Starmer) taking a position”, despite the US administration criticising Macron’s move.

Starmer last week called footage coming out of Gaza “appalling” and “unrelenting”.

“The continued captivity of hostages, the starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, the increasing violence from extremist settler groups, and Israel’s disproportionate military escalation in Gaza are all indefensible,” he said.

Starmer added that he was “working on a pathway to peace” that will “set out the concrete steps needed to turn the ceasefire so desperately needed, into a lasting peace”.

“Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that,” he added.

Starmer is expected to present the plan to allies in the “coming days”, the Telegraph reported.