Statement by Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the UN Security Council meeting on leadership for peace.
25 September 2024
Keir Starmer
Thank you, President. And thank you to our briefers.
I want start by paying tribute to those who see these terrible conflicts and walk towards them.
With no agenda other than helping those in need.
The UN and the ICRC have both lost staff this month, in Gaza, Lebanon and Donetsk. More than 200 aid workers have been killed so far this year, including British citizens.
Their humanity should illuminate the work of this Council. Because we have heard again today just how dire the situation has become.
The Security Council must deliver its responsibility for global peace and security. So I want to use this meeting as a call to action – in three key areas.
First, we need to renew the international consensus on delivering humanitarian support. This should be the bare minimum.
Yet, too often, we are falling short. We must address the situation in Gaza.
The 7th of October was the bloodiest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
I utterly condemn the terrorist actions of Hamas. The ordeal of the hostages and their loved ones continues almost a year later.
Six of them were killed in cold blood just a few weeks ago. So, I say again: let the hostages go.
And we must face up to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza that continues to deepen by the day.
Israel must grant humanitarian access to civilians in line with its obligations under international humanitarian law. There can be no more excuses.
Israel must open more crossings, allow vital, life-saving aid to flow and provide a safe environment for the UN and other humanitarian organisations to operate.
The civilian suffering in Gaza is beyond belief. So we have restarted our funding to UNRWA.
We’re supporting UK-MED to operate their field hospitals and we’re supporting UNICEF to deliver water, healthcare and specialist treatment for malnourished children.
But the most fundamental need is even more basic. They need the fighting to stop.
The situation in Sudan also demands our urgent attention. Millions are facing emergency or famine conditions, exacerbated by deliberate attempts to prevent aid reaching those in need.
This is now the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today and the worst displacement crisis, with over 10 million people driven from their homes.
It also risks destabilising South Sudan and Chad, which are already suffering their own humanitarian crises.
The UK has doubled its aid for the victims of this war to almost £100 million. But much more help is needed. The world must step up.
Second, I call on the Security Council to seek political solutions that can break repeating cycles of violence like that in the Middle East. The region is at the brink.
We need an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese Hizballah and the implementation of a political plan which allows Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return to their homes to live in peace and security.
That security will come through diplomacy – not escalation. There is no military solution here. Nor is there a military-only solution to the conflict in Gaza.
This Council must demand – again, an immediate, full and complete ceasefire in Gaza with the release of all the hostages.
We need a political route to that agreement which provides a bridge to a better future. A credible and irreversible path towards a viable Palestinian state.
Alongside a safe and secure State of Israel. This is the only way to provide security and justice for both Israelis and Palestinians.
In June, the UK brought a resolution to this Council on the war in Sudan.
Calling for both parties to commit to a ceasefire. I repeat that call today. The warring parties must engage in ceasefire talks.
We support the Secretary General’s Envoy in his efforts towards peace. We must keep working to bring this war to an end and we must ensure those responsible for committing atrocities are held accountable.
This leads me to my third and final point. We must ensure accountability for those violating the UN Charter and this Council must recommit to the values that it sets out.
This should go without saying. Yet, the greatest violation of the Charter in a generation has been committed by one of this Council’s permanent members.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is illegal. It threatens global security. And it has caused colossal human suffering. Over 35,000 civilians have been killed or injured, 6 million forced to flee and almost 20,000 Ukrainian children forcefully deported. Kidnapped, to put it bluntly.
I think of Yaroslav Bazylevych, whose wife and three daughters were killed earlier this month by a Russian strike on civilians in Lviv. And I wonder how Russia can show its face in this building.
Six hundred thousand Russian soldiers have also been killed or wounded in this war. And for what?
The UN Charter – which they sit here to uphold speaks of human dignity. Not treating your own citizens as bits of meat to fling into the grinder.
Russia’s war has triggered a global energy crisis and a global food security crisis, causing hunger in the Horn of Africa. They entered into the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain deal. Then withdrew.
They tried to block the Pact for the Future. Now the world looks on as Russia deepens its military ties, wWith the likes of North Korea and Iran. So there can be no equivocation here.
There must be accountability. Aggression cannot pay. Borders cannot be redrawn by force.
Russia started this illegal war. It must end it – and get out of Ukraine.
We stand with the 89 countries who made clear at the Swiss Peace Summit that Ukraine’s territorial integrity must be the basis of any just and lasting peace.
Any process that does not recognise this will only be used as a pretext by Russia to regroup and come again.
President, in this moment of deepening conflict, the world looks to this Council more than ever. To provide leadership for peace, preserve our collective security and protect the most vulnerable.
The United Kingdom will always play its full part in fulfilling that responsibility.
Thank you.
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