UK government accused of ignoring suffering of Palestinians caught in Gaza war by Iraq’s president
Iraq’s president has said he is “extremely disappointed” with the UK government’s response to the war in Gaza – accusing it of “ignoring” the suffering of Palestinians.
“The Palestinian problem has become an international problem,” President Abdul Latif Rashid told Sky News.
“And, recently, the suffering of the Palestinian people and the attacks on Gaza, especially on civilians and children, is beyond anything which human rights can accept, and I think it is the duty of the international community to put an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
The president was speaking to Sky News from the Presidential Palace in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in a rare interview with Western media.
President Rashid has accused the UK of allowing the suffering of Palestinians to continue. Pic: Sky News
His words are likely to resonate with not just the British government but the public, coming from a president who spent many years studying in Britain at a range of universities including Manchester, Liverpool, Southampton, Exeter and Cambridge.
During a break between meetings and events, including preparations for International Women’s Day, the president spoke frankly about what he suggests is a dereliction of duty by the British and American governments.
“Extremely disappointed. Extremely disappointed,” he said in reply to a question about the British government’s role.
“The demonstrations on the streets of London and other places in the United Kingdom show that, even in the parliament, the argument is on ending the suffering of the Palestinian people, but the prime minister and the British government itself ignored all these requests – and they still continue in not recognising the state of the Palestinian people.”
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children face starvation in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
The UK has abstained in United Nations votes calling for a ceasefire resolution and refused calls to suspend arms exports to Israel.
However, Foreign Secretary David Cameron said this week that the UK’s patience was running “thin” with Israel over its failure to ensure more aid enters Gaza and has called for a “sustainable ceasefire”.
Watch the full interview with President Rashid on The World With Yalda Hakim at 9pm tonight on Sky News.
President Rashid asked Sky’s Alex Crawford why the West had not imposed a ceasefire. Pic: Sky News
US making ‘all sorts of excuses’ for Gaza sufering
Mr Rashid also directly criticised America – one of the country’s key allies – for using its veto in the UN Security Council to prevent a ceasefire resolution.
“They allow it to continue and they make all sorts of excuses for the continuation of the suffering of the Palestinian people,” he said.
The Iraqi president urged the international community to back the fresh call by the South African government to the UN’s top court for emergency measures against Israel, which it says is breaching the measures already in place.
In its application, South Africa warned that Palestinians in Gaza were facing starvation and asked the court to order all parties to cease hostilities and release all hostages and detainees.
Israel has described South Africa’s legal action as a “despicable and contemptuous exploitation” of the international court and denies the lawsuit’s allegations.
In January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will continue to do “what is necessary” to defend itself after the 7 October attacks by Hamas. He said at the time: “Israel’s commitment to international law is unwavering. Equally unwavering is our sacred commitment to continue to defend our country and defend our people.”
But Mr Rashid continued: “We in Iraq think genocide has been committed and human rights, and every aspect of them, has been abused – especially killing children.
“Some of the children are under one year old.
“What crime have they committed to be attacked by bombs, by tanks, by whatever means the attackers use on the Palestinian people?
“We still don’t know how many children have been killed in thousands – and the crimes… I don’t think the international community in recent years has ever seen crimes like what has happened in Gaza.”
More than 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza, health ministry figures in the Hamas-run enclave indicate. Pic: Reuters
‘We are not happy about attacks’
Mr Rashid also did not hold back in condemning the US drone strike in the Iraqi capital a few weeks ago, which killed a senior Commander of Kata’ib Hezbollah, a US-proscribed terror group which is also a branch of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), an Iraqi state security agency composed of dozens of armed groups, many of them close to Iran.
And the president angrily lashed out at the same Iran-backed armed groups based on Iraqi soil who have launched multiple attacks against US troops based inside and near Iraq.
“We are condemning all these attacks and we are not happy about any attacks from Iraq or on Iraq,” he said.
Palestinians at the site of an Israeli strike in Rafah. Pic: Reuters
The situation in Gaza was having ripple effects across the world, the president added.
He said: “The Gaza problem has affected many countries, not only in the Middle East, even outside the Middle East.
“It has affected Yemen. It has affected Lebanon. It has affected Syria. It has affected the Red Sea and it has affected even shipping.
“So it has affected the economical situation, commercial situation and, at the same time, the political situation in the area.
“We are very much concerned. And until this problem is solved completely for the better future, I’m afraid the tension in the region will remain.”
The president suggested the only way forward was a ceasefire – and in the longer term, recognition of a Palestinian state.
He added: “Why don’t you blame the people who don’t force to impose a ceasefire? Because they [all the attacking armed groups] say if you have a ceasefire, all the actions will stop; whether it’s in Gaza, whether it’s in Palestine, whether it’s in Lebanon, whether in Yemen, whether in the sea or on the land.
“They [Israel] want to continue attacking Gaza, but everyone else just watches it?
“I mean, that’s not possible. That’s not possible.
“The main thing which is really important is to have a permanent ceasefire and try to solve the Palestinian problem, to give them self-determination on their own land by their own state.”
New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.
The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.
Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.
Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.
“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.
Pics: AP
Smoke covers a building that collapses following the strike. Pic: AP
Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up
Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.
The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
Residents check the site of the airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut. Pic: AP
More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.
About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.
Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
Read more:
Who is in Trump’s top team?
Trump’s cabinet signals tough stance on China
Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
Read more from Sky News:
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Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
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