LONDON, April 9– British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Thursday that she is “deeply troubled” by Israel’s escalating attacks on Lebanon, expressing hope that Lebanon be included in the current ceasefire.
“We’ve seen the humanitarian consequences, the huge mass displacement of people in Lebanon,” she told Sky News in a morning interview.
“So we do strongly want to see the ceasefire extended to Lebanon.” When asked about her view on the threats to annihilate “a whole civilization” by U.S. President Donald Trump, Cooper said such threats are “completely wrong.”
“I think that sort of escalatory rhetoric can have escalatory consequences,” she said. Acknowledging that Britain and the United States remain partners, she said her country can “take different decisions” than the United States on various issues, adding: “We cannot outsource our foreign policy to anyone else, but we will always work with those alliances.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is currently visiting Gulf countries to discuss diplomatic efforts on the ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
While there is a ceasefire in place, there is still a lot of work to do to reopen the Strait, British media quoted him as saying on Wednesday. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
