Israeli strikes on Lebanon are wrong and should stop, PM says

09 Apr 2026, 19:29

BBC

Israeli attacks on Lebanon are "wrong" and "should stop", Sir Keir Starmer has said during a three-day visit to the Gulf region.

Speaking to ITV's Talking Politics podcast, the prime minister said it was "a matter of principles" rather than a "technical" question over whether the strikes breached Tuesday's ceasefire deal with Iran.

An Iranian foreign minister told the BBC the strikes on Wednesday - which according to Lebanon's health ministry killed 303 people - were a "grave violation" of the ceasefire agreement, but Israel said Lebanon was not covered by the truce.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told his cabinet to begin negotiations with Lebanon "as soon as possible".

Sir Keir said the UK had not seen the details of the ceasefire and that it was therefore "hard to say" if Israel's strikes breached the deal.

At the start of the conflict with Iran, the UK refused the US permission to use British air bases for its initial strikes against Iran, but later allowed them to be used for defensive operations.

US President Donald Trump has fiercely criticised the UK, as well as other allies, for not getting more involved in the conflict.

The prime minister told ITV that he did not want to involve the UK in "something which didn't have a lawful basis or a clear thought-through plan".

Asked if he was sure that British bases were only being used by the Americans for defensive missions, Sir Keir said "we are monitoring that very clearly".

During his trip, the prime minister has travelled to Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain.

Earlier in the day, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called for the Strait of Hormuz to be fully reopened after ships in the Gulf were warned by the Iranian navy that those without permission to pass through faced attack.

Cooper told the BBC there should be no tolls or restrictions on the critical shipping route, as ships face uncertainty on possibly making payments to Iran to secure safe passage.

A fifth of the world's energy shipments usually transits through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed by the threat of Iranian attacks in retaliation to a bombing campaign by the US and Israel.

The conflict has caused the price of crude oil to spike, with sharp increases in petrol and diesel costs, leading to concerns about the cost of living in countries across the world.

Cooper, who will deliver her annual speech on UK foreign policy priorities on Thursday evening, said no country should be able to "hijack" international shipping routes "in the way that Iran has".

She told BBC Breakfast: "That's why it's so important that we have this international cooperation to keep up the pressure to get the Strait fully open - not to have tolls, not to have restrictions, but to get that fully reopened again."

She said Gulf countries have been "very clear about the damage tolls would do" to international trading routes.

Cooper also said in "many of the conversations" she has had with the US administration "they have also said how damaging that they think this would be".

Defence Secretary John Healey, speaking at a press conference in Downing Street, said the introduction of any "pay for passage tolls" would create a "potential principle that could be used and abused by others elsewhere".

Ministers accept the real decisions lie in the hands of the US and Israel - and the foreign secretary has urged them to include Lebanon in the ceasefire deal.

Cooper said she was "extremely concerned about the escalation of Israeli strikes" on Wednesday, adding: "We want to see Lebanon urgently included as part of the ceasefire, building on the ceasefire that's been announced, we want to see an end to the hostilities in Lebanon."

Pakistan - which acted as an intermediary in the ceasefire talks - and Iran said the deal covered Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting the Iranian proxy Hezbollah.

But Israel and the US have said the two-week ceasefire does not include Lebanon.

The foreign secretary will also visit the International Maritime Organization on Thursday in a show of support for the organisation's efforts to help ships and seafarers currently trapped in the waterway.

Last week, the UK chaired talks involving more than 40 countries on how to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, with all participants agreeing that the war had to end first.

Cooper said Iran had been able to "hijack" the international shipping route to "hold the global economy hostage" following the virtual summit, which the US was not involved in.

The US has repeatedly accused allies of not doing enough to secure the shipping route or to support its war effort, leaving the UK and other nations weighing how to contribute to securing the critical waterway without becoming involved in the wider war.

Iran has attacked several vessels in response to the war waged against it by the US and Israel, disrupting energy exports and sending global fuel prices soaring.

Prior to the ceasefire announcement on Wednesday, Trump said it was for other nations to "build up some delayed courage" and reopen the route.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said Israel's strikes on Lebanon were "undermining any hope of peace".

He urged the government to "halt all UK arms exports to Israel" and support plans to disarm Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed armed group in Lebanon.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski said the government should do more to stop Israel behaving "like a rogue state", including withdrawing from its trade deal with the country and introducing sanctions.