Category: Foreign Affairs

The statement made by Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, on 19 February 2026.

The findings of this UN report are truly horrific – atrocities including systematic starvation, torture, killings, rape and deliberate ethnic targeting used on the most horrendous scale during the Rapid Support Forces siege of El Fasher.

The UK called for this report to be commissioned by the UN in November to hold perpetrators of these vile atrocities to account, and today I will take its conclusions to the chamber of the Security Council and ensure that the voices of women of Sudan who have endured so much are heard by the world. 

Today’s report describes the most unimaginable and chilling horrors – including people forced to choose between starvation or eating animal feed, children subjected to mass rape, civilians ambushed and slaughtered as they fled the sieged city, patients and staff killed in their hospital, perpetrators boasting of mass crimes on social media, and calling for “extermination”.   

We need urgent action from across the international community including urgent international criminal investigations into the mounting evidence of atrocities in El Fasher to ensure accountability for vile perpetrators, justice for victims and to break the cycle of bloodshed.

We urgently need an end to arms flows. Reports into breaches of the arms embargo which we agree should be extended and enforced, must be investigated. The obstructions to the Fact Finding Mission from both warring parties are shameful and unacceptable – the UN needs unimpeded access to bring atrocities and breaches to account.

Most important of all we need global action and pressure in pursuit of a ceasefire, and essential humanitarian access with support for survivors.

Our response must be emphatic: the UK has sanctioned four senior RSF commanders accused of committing heinous atrocities in El Fasher.  And this week we joined the US and France in proposing they will be designated in the UN too – these crimes must not go unanswered. 

The world is still failing the people of Sudan. When the stories started to emerge about the horrors of El Fasher it should have been a turning point, but the violence is continuing. Today, in the Security Council, the UK as President will make sure the world does not look away. It is time to listen to the women of Sudan not the military men who have been prosecuting this war. We need action for justice, accountability and peace.

The speech made by Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, at the United Nations in New York on 18 February 2026.

Colleagues, let me begin by welcoming my fellow Ministers joining today’s session and also by thanking Under-Secretary-General Di Carlo for her briefing, as well as Hiba Qasas and Nadav Tamir for their powerful remarks which remind us of the opportunity that lies before us, an opportunity to end the cycle of violence and suffering, and to build a better future, free from terror, free from occupation, and to bring lasting peace and security to the region, and to come together in the very spirit of this United Nations.

For more than two years, the human cost has been unimaginable. Families shattered. Communities destroyed or displaced.

Trauma that will reverberate for generations.

The pain of the horrific Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7th, the suffering of the hostages, and the devastation of the war that followed in Gaza, with over 70,000 Palestinians killed. That is ever-present.

With thanks to the leadership of the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye – alongside a wider intense intense diplomatic drive from many of the nations represented here today – a ceasefire was secured and endorsed by this Council, in Resolution 2803.

The hostages are home, and the families of those deceased can finally lay their loved ones to rest.

And we have an international determination to deliver Phase 2 of the Peace Plan.

But the ceasefire itself remains fragile.

And the progress we all seek is at risk.

We have seen ceasefire violations on both sides. 

Hamas has continued to attack Israeli forces. 

And over 600 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire began.

And this is deeply disturbing and undermines Phase 1 of President Trump’s peace plan. 

Gaza must not get stuck in a no-man’s land between peace and war. 

So to deliver Phase 2, we see four priorities for urgent action.

Firstly, we must begin the serious process of decommissioning Hamas’s weapons.

In line with the 20 Point Plan, Hamas must destroy its terrorist infrastructure and weapons production sites as a first step towards full demilitarisation. And we stand ready to play our part.

Hamas must have no future role in running of Gaza.

Because that is crucial for the security of Israelis and Palestinians alike. Alongside this we need to see the Palestinian police strengthened, the International Stabilisation Force deployment, and IDF withdrawal from the Strip.

Second, we need to build stable Palestinian governance.

The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza must be supported to succeed.

This crucial body which was included alongside the Board of Peace in Resolution 2803 now needs to be supported to deliver for the Palestinian people, leading day-to-day service, delivery and recovery efforts, establishing its legitimacy and credibility.

That is the best way to weaken Hamas and render them irrelevant.

And there must be a clear plan for the links and transition from the Committee to a reformed Palestinian Authority.

Because Palestine must be run by Palestinians.

Third, we must prevent the destabilisation of the West Bank and preserve the viability of a Palestinian state. 

We have seen the Palestinian economy face strangulation, including the Israeli government withholding some of the Palestinian authority’s own tax revenues.

We are witnessing an all-time high of Israeli settlement expansion and settler violence, in flagrant breach of international law.

With Palestinian families and communities driven from their homes, beaten while farming in their own land.

Attacks that sow terror among civilians.

This is deeply deeply wrong, and a clear contravention of the resolutions of this Council, and counter-productive. It only makes the Israeli and Palestinian people less secure.
Fourth and most important of all, most immediately, we must address Gaza’s catastrophic humanitarian situation.

Families, repeatedly displaced, are spending this winter desperately seeking shelter amidst the rubble.

Without electricity. Without water supplies or healthcare.

Children have frozen to death, and died while awaiting medical evacuations.

This is unconscionable and, crucially, it is preventable.

To address these dire needs the United Kingdom has contributed over $100m for humanitarian support in Gaza this year.

Since the ceasefire, aid flows have increased, more crossings are partially reopened, but the level of need cannot be met unless more restrictions are lifted covering essential medical equipment, components for field hospitals, basic shelter items.

Because delays and restrictions cost lives. And we also risk now going dangerously backwards.

The Israeli government policy of deregistering and shutting down the operations of international NGOs in Gaza – including British organisations like Save the Children – risk choking off essential access to people in desperate need and closing fragile health facilities, so we need an urgent change in course.

So I urge the authorities to urgently ensure that experienced and long-standing organisations can continue to operate, and the UN and its partners must remain at the heart of the response throughout the whole of Gaza, including the proper protection of all UNRWA and UN staff, premises, and operations.

Colleagues,

Last September, I came to the UN and – and alongside allies – affirmed the UK’s recognition of the State of Palestine.

This historic step, 75 years after Britain’s recognition of the State of Israel, reflected our commitment to a two-state solution, to the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and the security of Israel.

And I spoke then about the profound peril facing the two-state solution and the need for the world to come together and take action for peace.

That remains true today.

So Britain remains steadfast in our support for the security of Israel and its people.

Because a two-state solution can be the gateway to transform the region: with normalisation, regional integration and peaceful coexistence.

But security cannot be achieved by an indefinite or humiliating occupation that denies security and sovereignty to the Palestinian people.

So despite the trauma; despite the suffering of recent years, there remains the hope for a better future.

As we have heard from the powerful testimonies of our civil society briefers today.

In March this year the UK will hold a Peacebuilding Conference to bring together Israel and Palestinian civil society leaders to build trust and challenge divisions, because peace is built not just by governments, but by whole societies.

The UK has its own experience of peacebuilding in Northern Ireland, which was a conflict that many said could never be resolved and communities that many said could never co-exist.

There are other members of this Council who have equivalent or deeper insights. And we know that we cannot undo the trauma of the past. But we can chart a different course for generations to come.

To help realise Palestinian self-determination.

To help provide Israel with long-term security.

And to secure the two-state solution as the only path to lasting peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis alike.