BICOM

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said yesterday that Britain supports a secure future for Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people, alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state. Hague addressed a conference at London’s Chatham House yesterday marking 60 years of British-Israeli diplomatic ties. He added that Britain supports Israel’s right to exist saying it is not “an issue of discussion or compromise” and that the British government “firmly opposes” any organisation that seeks to delegitimise or boycott Israel as a method of protest. Hague vowed to continue to stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and added that it is “vital that in exercising the right to self-defence, Israel takes every possible step to avoid loss of innocent life”.

 

On the topic of the peace process, Hague noted that he did not believe that an interim solution would be enough to end the conflict and that final status issues would need to be resolved in order to reach a final agreement. He added that he hoped the peace process would resume by September, a date set by US President Barack Obama and the international community. Hague expanded on this point stating that the UK, France and Germany have set out their views on what a final agreement could look like. In setting out how he saw the terms of a final status agreement, Hague stressed that an answer to the refugee problem should be “realistic”, as well as being “fair” and “agreed”.

You can read William Hague’s speech in full here.