Middle East

Abtisam Mohamed Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

The Father of the House is right. We took a different view to that of the US and Israel at the start of this conflict, and we did not get drawn into offensive operations against Iran. We did take defensive action to support Gulf partners when they were under attack from Iran, but we took a different view at the start of this conflict, and I believe that was the right thing for the UK to do and was in the UK’s interest.

The US remains a close security partner and ally, and I have many conversations with Secretary of State Marco Rubio about a whole range of different issues, not just in the middle east but across the world. We were involved in many discussions with the US in the run-up to the adoption of the 20-point plan and the Gaza peace process last autumn, and it was US leadership that got the final agreement to the 20-point plan. However, the plan is at risk of falling apart right now, which is why we are engaging with not just the US but partners across the world. We will be having the peacebuilding conference in Paris on Friday, because we need to restore the energy and commitment to the 20-point plan, which is being flouted repeatedly and dangerously across Gaza every single day. We urgently need humanitarian aid and support for families in Gaza, but we also need the restoration of energy behind the 20-point plan.

[Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s statement and the measures that she has announced today, but I want to come back to her strong advice to businesses that we should not conduct any economic and financial activities in illegal Israeli settlements, rather than having an outright ban. We know a ban is possible, because we did it for illegally occupied territories in Ukraine, and we know it is the right thing to do, because when it comes to trading in ivory, firearms or narcotics, we ban it outright. We know that anything less than a total ban risks the UK aiding Israel’s repeated violations of international law. Is it not time to move beyond strong guidance and advice by taking meaningful, proportionate action and having an outright ban?

[Yvette Cooper]

We share the view that the settlements are illegal and undermine peace. We want to prevent trade with illegal settlements and discourage anyone, including UK businesses as well as those from around the world, from supporting those settlements. That is why we are using our sanctions regime to target some of the issues around the settlements, and why we are looking at other ways of strengthening our sanctions regime. We will continue to work with allies across the world on this matter. Other countries have also looked at these issues and what more can be done, and have found that some of the practicalities are complex in this area, but we will continue to work with allies.

Lebanon: Israel Defence Forces Operations

Abtisam Mohamed Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

The shadow Foreign Secretary makes a range of important points, including on the enormous and continued harm that Hezbollah does to the people of Lebanon, as indeed it continues to attempt to do to the people of Israel. It is completely unacceptable that communities in the north of Israel continue to face barrages of missiles and drones. We have called repeatedly for Hezbollah to stop; what it does harms Lebanon as much as Israel.

We have discussed in detail, with the Lebanese armed forces and the leadership of Lebanon, the progress that must be made in disarming Hezbollah. There has been a lot of commentary about the phasing and sequencing of those efforts over the last few months, but it must be the Lebanese Government who disarm Hezbollah. That is the only way that the Hezbollah issue can be properly dealt with. The Government of Lebanon are brave and courageous people in whom we have very considerable confidence. President Aoun, who I was in contact with today, is taking very important steps to try to safeguard his country and its future, and we must support him. He, his Government and his armed forces must monopolise force in Lebanon, not Hezbollah and not the IDF.

[Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

Some 125 health workers have been killed in Lebanon in the last three months alone. Today, an Israeli strike hit an ambulance in south Lebanon, killing two paramedics, which takes the death toll to 127. The November 2024 ceasefire agreement is barely worth the paper it is written on. The Minister rightly condemns the targeting of civilians, but what about Israel’s targeting of health workers or journalists? Does the Minister realise that condemnation without action has utterly failed, and reinforces Israel’s continuing disregard for international law? Will the Minister make it clear today that sanctions must be used to hold Israel accountable?

[Mr Falconer]

My hon. Friend has been a persistent advocate on these issues. We have taken a whole series of steps, which I will set out in brief for the House. So important are the issues in Lebanon that during my visit in April, we went from providing only £10 million of humanitarian assistance to now providing £30 million. We are now one of the world’s largest humanitarian donors to Lebanon. Few other Ministers in the world have gone as close as I have to the blue line. I met incredibly brave representatives of the Lebanese Red Cross—young people who have, in many cases, given up their lives to try to minimise the harm coming to southern communities. I was so upset to see that there have been further strikes since I met them. I am proud of our support for them, and I utterly condemn the attacks.

Oral Answers to Questions

Abtisam Mohamed Excerpts

Tuesday 20th January 2026 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

1. What recent assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the situation in Yemen.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Mr Hamish Falconer)]

In November I made the first ministerial visit to Yemen in six years. I met the President and the Prime Minister to reaffirm the United Kingdom’s unwavering support for a unified and stable Yemen. We support their commitment to reform, and we continue to focus on delivering humanitarian assistance to all those in need in Yemen and, alongside our international partners, using every diplomatic lever to advance peace. The recent escalation of tensions in southern Yemen threatens to undermine those goals. We therefore welcome the calls by Yemen’s President for a dialogue addressing these issues, and Saudi Arabia’s offer to host a conference. We will continue to support efforts to achieve a swift diplomatic resolution.

[Abtisam Mohamed]

In the context of what the United Nations special envoy has described as a rapidly worsening humanitarian and economic crisis in Yemen, does the Minister welcome the forthcoming southern dialogue conference, led by Saudi Arabia and supported by the Arab League and the Gulf Co-operation Council? How is the UK, as penholder on Yemen, supporting that process to deliver a tangible road map for a way forward that addresses the aspirations of southern communities?

[Mr Falconer]

I do welcome Saudi Arabia’s southern dialogue conference. As my hon. Friend has said, it is supported by the Arab League and the GCC, and it is a vital step amid a worsening humanitarian and economic crisis. As UN penholder, the UK is actively supporting the process, through sustained engagement with Saudi leaders, the UN special envoy and regional partners, to help shape a credible road map that reflects southern communities’ aspirations.

Kashmir: Self-determination

Abtisam Mohamed Excerpts

Wednesday 10th December 2025 Westminster Hall

[Imran Hussain]

As ever, my hon. Friend makes a fine point. She is absolutely right. Let us make that point clear: only the Kashmiris themselves can determine their own destiny. It is not a matter for India, for Pakistan or for any other country.

As I was saying, the Kashmiris were promised a referendum 70 years ago. That referendum never happened. Their calls for justice have gone unanswered, their fundamental human rights have been violated, and their right to self-determination has been repeatedly denied. For more than 70 years, Kashmiris have continuously endured persecution, oppression and injustice. Throughout the period, draconian and repressive laws, including the Indian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, the Public Safety Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, have been used to grant sweeping powers to the Indian security forces, allowing detention without trial, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. All three of those Acts are illegal under international law, yet we continue to have silence from the international community.

[Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

I commend my hon. Friend on his continued advocacy on this subject. Does he agree that international humanitarian law is clear that the protection of civilians is not optional, that the UK has deep and historic ties to Kashmir and its people, and that we are therefore not fulfilling our obligations? Given that context, does he agree that we need to do more?

[Imran Hussain]

I absolutely agree. We have a deafening silence and lack of action. One cannot choose between human rights abuses. In Kashmir, we continue to see human rights defenders, journalists and political leaders being targeted relentlessly. Political prisoners are denied the right to a fair trial and used as an example of what happens when Kashmiris dare to speak the truth. That is not the rule of law; it is state-sponsored persecution designed to break the will of an entire people.

Qatar: Israeli Strike

Abtisam Mohamed Excerpts

Wednesday 10th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

I thank the right hon. Lady for those important questions. The British Government are fully committed, with our Gulf and G7 partners, to efforts to ensure that the current negotiations come to the conclusions that we wish to see. Those include conclusions in the short term—we have long repudiated Hamas’s hostage taking, so the hostages need to be released immediately, and humanitarian aid must get into Gaza. As I said in response to the hon. Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller), there are also other questions about governance and security, and about the long-term prospects for Gaza, for the west bank, and for a state of Palestine and a state of Israel living side by side. We are fully engaged in that diplomacy, as the right hon. Lady would expect.

On the right hon. Lady’s wider question about fragility in the region, she will be familiar with the decisions we have taken on snapback. I imagine that we will return to discuss Iran in greater detail at some point in the future, as I am conscious that there were developments over recess. We have triggered snapback and we will continue to return to the House to discuss the threat of Iran’s nuclear programme.

[Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

The longer that Israel is allowed to act like a rogue state, bombing sovereign countries with impunity and expanding its war in the middle east, the weaker our words look—Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Tunisian soil and now Qatar. Why are we meeting Israel’s President Herzog today, when his own words and those of Netanyahu show a complete disregard for international humanitarian law?

[Mr Falconer]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for her work on a whole range of questions, including current efforts to try to ensure the successful evacuation of vulnerable people from Gaza. It is important that we raise our concerns directly to the Israeli Government, both to contribute to the diplomatic process and to try to secure the practical and tangible help required to get people out of Gaza. The British Foreign Office on its own cannot secure the speedy departures that we wish to see.

Oral Answers to Questions

Abtisam Mohamed Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Doughty]

We engage regularly with international counterparts on Georgia and on wider stability in the south Caucasus. The right hon. Gentleman mentioned the importance of media freedom. He will know that we condemned the disproportionate and politically motivated sentencing of Mzia Amaglobeli in August; she has been sentenced to two years in prison, and we call for her immediate release. I also discussed the wider situation with Georgia’s fifth president, President Zourabichvili, on her recent visit to the UK, and I expressed my support for her work supporting democracy in Georgia. The right hon. Gentleman will understand that I will not comment on further measures, but he can be absolutely assured that I am closely following matters, as are other colleagues across Government.

[Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

6. What progress his Department has made on the evacuation of UK scholarship students from Gaza.

[The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Mr David Lammy)]

I have been working closely with the Home Secretary to ensure that students from Gaza, including Chevening scholars, can secure their UK visas. We are expecting nine Chevening students to start their courses soon. I am pleased to say that we are extending this support to students in Gaza with full scholarships.

[Abtisam Mohamed]

Yara is a 24-year-old student from Gaza City. Her ambition is to study international law and global justice, and earlier this year she won a scholarship at the University of Sheffield to do just that. Yara is one of more than 80 scholarship students trapped in Gaza today, displaced again and again, with all her belongings packed into a small bag and ready to move at a moment’s notice. This scholarship offers her a chance to escape Israel’s genocide, famine and bombardment, which has flattened more than 1,000 buildings in Yara’s neighbourhood in just one week. Can the Foreign Secretary guarantee that Yara and other students like her will not be left stranded and will be immediately evacuated by the Government in time for their courses to start this month?

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing Yara to the attention of the House. Of course we want to see bright students like her able to achieve their ambitions. We are reliant on Israeli permissions and on students having a full scholarship, but what I can do is ensure that the Minister for the Middle East meets my hon. Friend to discuss this case in detail.

Middle East

Abtisam Mohamed Excerpts

Monday 1st September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his remarks, particularly on Iran. He is absolutely right to place at the centre the 15,000 people who have been injured in Gaza while simply seeking aid, and the more than 2,000 who have died seeking aid. It is totally unacceptable, and he is right to remind the House about the position of the hostage families, who are crystal clear that they do not want to see further military endeavour and operation in Gaza City. What they want is a ceasefire, and they fear that further military endeavour will actually harm their loved ones further, not succeed in bringing them home.

The hon. Gentleman criticises our position on recognition. I ask him to reflect on that, because it must be right that the Government continue to give diplomacy an opportunity as we head to the UN alongside other partners. Surely he would want us to be working with our French, Australian and Canadian partners as we head to that gathering at UNGA, and surely he would want to see the Israelis commit to a ceasefire, commit to a process and end the war. All of that is what we are seeking to do as we make an assessment of where we have got to in the coming weeks. I reassure him that of course I raise the issue of Gaza with all levels of the US Administration. I did raise the situation in Gaza with Vice President Vance earlier in the summer and with Secretary of State Rubio, and I have spoken to envoy Steve Witkoff in the last 24 hours to get an update on this fast-moving situation. Direct sales of F-35s to Israel are banned, and the hon. Gentleman knows that we ban arms that could go to the IDF for use in Gaza.

[Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s statement on Palestinian statehood and the additional aid announced for Gaza, as well as the recent work to evacuate students and children in need of medical treatment. However, the world’s foremost group of genocide scholars has said that

“Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.

This is against the backdrop of Israel continuing to bombard Gaza, continuing to target and kill journalists, and continuing its policy of annexing the entire territory, with Trumpian visions of a Gaza where the self-determination of Palestinians is little more than a real estate opportunity. Does the Foreign Secretary agree with me that this monumental resolution by genocide scholars should now trigger our responsibility to act?

[Mr Lammy]

I say to my hon. Friend that we continue to do all we can to bring the horrific suffering in this war to an end. Of course I recognise what legal scholars are saying about the conflict and in relation to genocide. That must be, appropriately, a matter for the legal system, but I think the whole world looks on what is happening with deep, deep concern, and in every legislature across the world there is condemnation.

Sudan

Abtisam Mohamed Excerpts

Wednesday 16th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

Not a single person in my Sudanese diaspora community in Sheffield has not been affected by the horrific violence in Sudan, but the most harrowing part for them is not the regular communication jams blocking parent from child and brother from sister, or the multiple displacements of millions of the most vulnerable people, or indeed the famine ripping through the population; the worst part is that while this, the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, is breaking every boundary we know, world powers continue to look away.

The UK Government have a unique position as penholder for Sudan, and at the UN Security Council I appreciate that we called for a ceasefire through a resolution, but the resolution set no deadline for concluding the ceasefire and authorised no enforcement mission. So, Minister, what are we doing to enforce accountability for the shameful complicity of states backing the warring sides, and when will we push for an agreement to a ceasefire so the people of Sudan can be free from this horror?

[Catherine West]

I thank my hon. Friend, who is a loud voice here on behalf her Sudanese diaspora. The most important things the UK can do to build on the momentum of the important London Sudan conference—bearing in mind that we were the first to have such a conference—are to continue to base our work on the statement from its co-chairs; to continue, as she says, to use our role at the United Nations; and to work through the new friends of Sudan grouping to keep pushing at the highest level, using our position on the UN Security Council to galvanise its action and continue the important supply of aid into the region.

Middle East

Abtisam Mohamed Excerpts

Monday 23rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I simply say to the right hon. Gentleman, with all respect, that there is a convention in our country about the very important role that Attorneys General play in our Government. They are able to give the Government advice when asked for it; that happens under all Governments. I do not really recognise the caricature that I have heard or some of the reports. I want to make it crystal clear that we were not involved in this action and therefore some of what is being said is wholly beyond the pale.

[Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

Many constituents contacted me over the weekend, fearful of the fallout from US intervention in Iran. They know, and we know, that wars do not make the world a safer place, but make it much more dangerous. Their concerns are not unwarranted. In 2002, Netanyahu offered a guarantee that regime change in Iraq would bring “enormous positive reverberations” to the region. We now know that there was no imminent threat and no evidence of weapons. The scale of the disaster, not just in Iraq but across the region, was so profound that the Chilcot inquiry insisted that any future military intervention must be met with rigorous scrutiny. Does the Foreign Secretary accept the need for such scrutiny, and will he reassure the House again that we will not enter an endless war fuelled by reckless provocateurs?

[Mr Lammy]

I was in the House during the period in which Chilcot was doing his work, and I reassure my hon. Friend that our Government—and, I hope, all future UK Governments—have learned from its findings.

Iran-Israel Conflict

Abtisam Mohamed Excerpts

Monday 16th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his remarks and the tone with which he made them, because in matters of war it is always important that this House can speak with one voice. On proscription, I refer him to the work of Jon Hall and remind him that we are dealing with state threats. To be absolutely clear, no country in the world is deploying more state threats across the world than Iran. That was why it was important to look at that issue specifically. He has found gaps in our architecture. We are looking at those gaps and we will come forward with our plans shortly.

The hon. Gentleman rightly talks about the important work of negotiation and diplomacy, and what sits behind that. It is absolutely right that we continue to work with France and Germany. I reassure him that that work has continued and was continuing alongside—a parallel track, if you like—the work of President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff. We applauded that work and that effort to get to a negotiated diplomatic solution, but it is a solution that will require Iran giving up its nuclear capability. It will involve Iran getting serious about what those centrifuges under mountains are really for. We are very serious about that; that is what we were insistent on, and why we said there would be a snapback and we would impose very severe sanctions—that those sanctions would hit Iran once again if we did not see compliance.

The hon. Gentleman puts on record his views on Gaza. We have had those exchanges many times across the Chamber.

[Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

I welcome the work of the Foreign Secretary and the diplomatic actions that have taken place so far. Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran has opened yet another dangerous front and risks dragging the entire region into a wider war, with devastating consequences for ordinary people across the middle east—people who have already borne decades of conflict and intervention. Given that Israel’s claims have been challenged even by US intelligence assessments, can the Foreign Secretary assure the House that no UK military support, whether direct or indirect, will be given without the clear and explicit consent of this House, and that the Government have learned the hard lessons of Iraq and Libya, and will not repeat them?

[Mr Lammy]

I say to my hon. Friend categorically that the UK is not involved in Israel’s strikes. We do have an important regional role. We have UK assets in Cyprus, Bahrain and Qatar, and we have an important role in Operation Shader, where we are dealing with terrible threats to us and our allies from Daesh and others. We have important relationships in the Gulf and the wider region. That is why the Defence Secretary has, as a precautionary step, sent further military aid to the area.