22/04/2026

WEDNESDAY | APR 22, 2026

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Ex-official talks of pressure from UK PM’s office

CAIRO: Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Monday, Palestinian health officials said, and fighters from Hamas clashed with gunmen from an Israeli-backed militia. Medics said one man was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Bureij camp in the central area of the enclave, while another strike killed one person and wounded others in Gaza City. Later on Monday, an Israeli airstrike killed at least three people in western Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, health officials at Nasser Hospital said. The five deaths were the latest violence to overshadow the US brokered ceasefire deal signed in October after two years of full blown war between Israel and Hamas. Progress has stalled on parts of the deal, which include the disarmament of Hamas and Israeli army pullouts. The ceasefire that began last October left Israeli troops in control of a depopulated zone that makes up well over half of Gaza, with Hamas controlling the narrow coastal strip that remains. More than 750 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire deal took effect, according to local medics, while Israel says gunmen have killed four of its soldiers. Israel and Hamas have traded blame for ceasefire violations. Israel says it aims to thwart attacks by Hamas and other factions. Also on Monday, residents said members of an Israeli-backed militia operating in an area under Israeli control clashed with Palestinian fighters after crossing into a Hamas-run area east of Khan Younis. As the militiamen tried to retreat, a Hamas fighter fired an anti-tank grenade towards their vehicle, some residents and a Hamas source said. – Reuters Israeli strikes kill five in Gaza

o Pressure builds up against Starmer

TEHRAN: The United States and Iran both warned they were ready for war, with uncertainty over whether talks that President Donald Trump had announced would resume in Pakistan. The White House said Vice President JD Vance was ready to fly to Islamabad, which was preparing for a second round of talks on ending the war that has engulfed the Middle East and shaken global markets. However, Tehran’s government declined to confirm that it would take part and accused the United States of violating the truce through its blockade and seizure of a ship. “By imposing a blockade and violating the ceasefire, Trump wants to turn this negotiating table into a surrender table or justify renewed hostilities, as he sees fit,” said Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who headed the delegations to talks two weeks ago. “We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the last two weeks we have been preparing to show new cards on the battlefield.” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned of targeting any vessel attempting to pass through the Strait LONDON: A former top Foreign Ministry official said yesterday he had faced “constant pressure” from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office to speed up the appointment of his pick as the ambassador to the US, deepening a row that threatens the British leader. A war of words over who should ultimately take the blame for appointing Labour veteran Peter Mandelson to Britain’s highest diplomatic post despite his history and known ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has piled pressure on Starmer, prompting calls by critics for his resignation. Starmer has said he was “wrong” to appoint Mandelson to the role and has expressed regret, but on Monday put the blame firmly on Foreign Ministry officials for failing to tell him that a security vetting body had advised against his appointment – something, he said, would have stopped him from employing the new ambassador. Yesterday, it was the turn of Olly Robbins, the Foreign Ministry’s former top official who was sacked late on Thursday after Starmer and Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper said they had lost confidence in him, to mount his defence. He was quick to shift the focus to Starmer’s office. “I walked into a situation in which there was already a very, very strong expectation ... that he needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible,” Robbins told a parliamentary committee. “I think throughout January

(2025), honestly, my office, the foreign secretary’s office, were under constant pressure,” Robbins said. “There was an atmosphere of constant chasing,” he said, describing “very frequent phone calls” from the private office of Starmer’s Number 10 Downing Street. Robbins’ account is likely to increase the pressure on Starmer, who after winning the largest majority in modern history for Labour at a national election in 2024 is facing new calls to step down over a scandal which has run for months. Labour lawmakers have said there would not be an immediate move to oust Starmer, especially as the party is expected to suffer big losses in local elections in England and regional votes in Wales and Scotland in just over two weeks. But the return of the focus on Starmer’s Downing Street operation will do little to appease those lawmakers who have repeatedly raised concerns over what some call a bunker mentality and lack of access. Robbins said that when he took office on Jan 20, 2025, Mandelson’s appointment had already been announced, approval had been given by King Charles, it had been agreed by the US government and Mandelson was being granted access to highly classified briefings on a case-by-case basis. He said it would have damaged relations with the US if the foreign office had blocked the appointment at that stage. It was not clear whether of Hormuz without permission. Trump has similarly accused Tehran of violating the truce by harassing vessels in the key strait, the transit passage for about a fifth of the world’s oil that Iran had all but shut in retaliation for the war launched by the United States and Israel on Feb 28. The channel sees around 120 daily transits in peacetime, according to Lloyd’s List. The site reported yesterday that more than 20 Iranian “shadow vessels” had transited past the US blockade. Trump insisted in a post on his Truth Social platform that the blockade was “absolutely destroying” Iran and said it will not end “until there is a deal,” in which the United States is pressing for Iranian concessions on its contested nuclear programme. Trump told PBS News that Iran was “supposed to be there” at the talks. “We agreed to be there,” he said, warning that if the ceasefire expired “then lots of bombs start going off”. He separately told Bloomberg News it was “highly unlikely” he would extend the two-week truce. Based on its start time, the truce theoretically expires overnight on Tuesday, Tehran time, although Trump

Robbins speaks of constant pressure. – UK PARLIAMENTARY RECORDING UNIT HANDOUT/ AFPPIC

brief reprieve from his critics after limiting Britain’s role in the Iran war. Even some in top team of ministers have said they were concerned about Mandelson’s appointment. Asked what went through his mind over the decision to appoint him, Energy Minister Ed Miliband told Sky News: “That it could blow up, that it could go wrong. I had a conversation with David Lammy about it before the appointment, and I said I was worried about it.” Robbins also revealed that Starmer’s office had been pushing for an ambassadorial job to be found for Matthew Doyle, the prime minister’s former senior communications director who has been removed from the Labour Party after he campaigned for a man who was a convicted sex offender. Doyle has apologised for his actions. – Reuters

Downing Street even wanted the Foreign Ministry to complete so called developed vetting clearance – a status that allows individuals access to information regarded as top secret, Robbins said. It was down to the Foreign Ministry to complete that process, he said, and officials had stuck to a system whereby reports from a unit called UK Security Vetting were never shared with ministers to protect the candidate’s confidentiality. But he did say the unit had advised the appointment was a borderline case and they were leaning against granting clearance – a message Starmer says his government never received. “Whilst I think the department felt under pressure, we were proud of the fact we’d not bowed to that pressure,” Robbins said. Robbins’ defence again cranks up pressure on Starmer, who had won a

US, Iran talks in limbo

Clutching flowers, veterans with the group About Face and members of military families protest against the

Iran war in the Cannon House Office Building

Rotunda on Capitol Hill in Washington,

DC on Monday. – REUTERSPIC

second round of talks in Washington tomorrow, said a State Department official. Sporadic violence continued and Israel’s military warned civilians against returning to dozens of villages in southern Lebanon, claiming Hezbollah’s activities were violating the truce. – AFP

Tuesday,” one 30-year-old doctor said. A separate ceasefire agreed between Israel and Lebanon was announced on Friday and included Hezbollah, whose rocket fire in support of Iran drew Lebanon into the war. Israel and Lebanon, which have no diplomatic relations, will hold a

said in his comments to Bloomberg the end was a day later, on Wednesday evening Washington time. Despite some normality returning to Tehran during the ceasefire, city residents who spoke to Paris-based AFP journalists said the situation was far from ideal. “Let’s see what happens by