Defence Sec @JohnHealey_MP says that "we must secure a ceasefire" in the Middle East.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 7, 2024
"We as a government don't supply anything to Israel", he adds.https://t.co/PAiZ4D1jU3
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The defence secretary was asked if Joe Biden has been “humiliated” by Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of US calls for a ceasefire in an awkward interview this morning.
The US, Israel’s most powerful ally, has been pleading for Netanyahu’s government to de-escalate its tensions with Iran’s proxies across the Middle East, as humanitarian crises emerge in both Lebanon and Gaza.
But the Israeli prime minister has repeatedly said his country “will not stop” its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon, and claimed his troops will continue fighting in Gaza until “all the objectives of the war have been achieved”.
Sky News presenter Yalda Hakim asked cabinet minister John Healey on Monday: “We’ve continued to see prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu defy any idea of a ceasefire – just in the last week, that proposal by the US and France for a 21-day ceasefire.
“Do you think President Biden, and every time he proposes something and Netanyahu rejects it, is humiliated now?
“And America isn’t using its fully leverage over Israel?”
Healey replied: “I think President Biden and the US have displayed extraordinary leadership during this last year.
“Diplomacy is difficult, you sometimes get setbacks, but the fact that the UK, the US along side the United Nations itself, was arguing for this 21-day ceasefire – it’s the sort of work that we’re doing behind the public scenes, as well as the public calls, and we have to redouble those efforts.”
But Hakim pushed: “Is it a great display of leadership that this war has now expanded – exactly what President Biden said he didn’t want?
“And now we’ve also seen over a million Lebanese displaced from their homes and the death toll continuing to rise there.”
“You’re right, and our argument to Israel is we understand that for the whole of the last year, every day, you have been suffering 100 to 200 missiles a day from Lebanese Hezbollah, they must stop the missiles and withdraw,” the defence secretary replied. “If they do that, then the Israelis must also cease fighting.”
Healey faced a similar line of questioning on BBC Breakfast, where presenter Jon Kay put it to him that Labour should have “stood up stronger and sooner to Israel”, so that some of the “disasters of the last year” could have been avoided.
The defence secretary said: “Actually for six months, Labour has led the argument in parliament, worked with allies and led the call for immediate ceasefire in Gaza. We were doing so again in the UN a couple of weeks ago.”
He said the UK has done the same for Lebanon, and supported the UN’s plan for a separation zone, so there is a “path to peace”.
“But are those voices, are our voices, actually being heard? Isn’t the message from the last year that the UK, the US, the United Nations doesn’t actually have any influence in this?” The presenter asked.
The cabinet minister said he had spoken with his Israeli counterpart to encourage him to reduce the “intolerable” number of civilian deaths in Gaza, and that the UK recognises tIsrael’s right to defend itself.
He said: “Of course diplomacy is difficult, there are setbacks, but we are determined that we will continue because that in the end is the only way to bring the end to the fighting.”
Exactly a year ago, Hamas militants killed 1,200 people on Israeli soil and took around 250 others hostage.
Israel declared war and launched a ground invasion into Gaza, where Hamas are based. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since.
Israel is now on the cusp of all-out war with Hezbollah, Lebanon-based militants who support Hamas, too.
