LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May told Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that Israel must end illegal settlements to achieve peace, as they celebrated the centenary of the British statement that helped lead to the Jewish state’s creation.
The two leaders attended a dinner celebrating the Balfour Declaration of 1917, a statement offering Britain’s support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
In a speech at the event, May said Britain was committed to a two-state solution with a viable Palestinian state.
“There will need to be compromises from each side if we are to have a realistic chance of achieving this goal — including an end to the building of new settlements and an end to Palestinian incitement too,” she said.
The prime minister held talks in Downing Street earlier in the day with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who said: “Israel is committed to peace, I’m committed to peace.
“A hundred years after Balfour, the Palestinians should finally accept a Jewish national home and finally accept a Jewish state. And when they do, the road to peace will be infinitely closer. In my opinion peace will be achievable.”
The Balfour Declaration is seen as a precursor to Israel’s creation in 1948, and the anniversary is a joyous occasion for Israelis.
But many Palestinians say it led to hundreds of thousands fleeing or being forced from their homes, and thousands took to the streets of various cities on Thursday in protest.
Effigies of May and Balfour were set ablaze in the West Bank city of Nablus, while in Hebron protesters burned a British flag.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wrote in a newspaper opinion piece that “the creation of a homeland for one people resulted in the dispossession and continuing persecution of another.”
May said she would “absolutely not” apologize for the Balfour Declaration, telling dinner guests: “We are proud of our pioneering role in the creation of the state of Israel.”
But she also cautioned that one of the key caveats of the historic letter — that the rights of non-Jewish communities shall be protected — has not been realized.
“Sadly, Balfour remains unfinished business — as his fundamental vision of peaceful co-existence has not yet been fulfilled,” she said.
Netanyahu, who is on a five-day visit to London, also met British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Their discussions were expected to include US President Donald Trump’s decision last month to refuse to certify the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.
Before their meeting, May emphasised Britain’s commitment to the deal, while Netanyahu said: “The goal that I have in mind is not keeping or eliminating the deal, it is improving the deal and correcting its main flaws.
“Those that want to keep the deal should co-operate on correcting the deal.”
Dignitaries at the dinner included a descendant of the Balfour Declaration’s author, then foreign secretary Lord Arthur Balfour.
In her speech, May was also warned against a “pernicious form of anti-Semitism which uses criticism of the actions of the Israeli government as a despicable justification for questioning the very right of Israel to exist.”
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour party, was unable to attend but sent a colleague in his place.
On Friday, Netanyahu said he hoped a US peace initiative would work and praised President Donald Trump for taking a fresh approach to bringing the Israelis and Palestinians back to negotiations.
Asked during a visit to London to commemorate the 1917 British declaration of support for a Jewish homeland if he felt now was the moment for peace in the region, noting Trump’s involvement in peace efforts, he said: “Hope so.”
“What’s being discussed now is an American initiative. Obviously we make our interests and our concerns known to Mr. Trump. He’s coming with a sort of refreshing ‘can-do’ thing... they’re trying to think out of the box,” Netanyahu said at London’s Chatham House think tank.
Netanyahu has previously expressed doubts about the Trump initiative, telling France’s President Emmanuel Macron in July that it would be difficult to move forward quickly because he felt Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas may not be able to deliver on commitments he had made.
But he said that more countries in the region were now beginning to engage constructively with Israel.
“The reason I draw hope from the moment is because of the larger shift in Arab-Israeli relations with the countries of the region. I cannot emphasize how dramatic that is,” he said.
Israel must end illegal settlements, says May
Israel must end illegal settlements, says May
What 2026 holds for Sudan as conflict drags on and famine deepens
- Hopes after Khartoum’s recapture dimmed as El-Fasher fell to RSF atrocities and ceasefire efforts stalled
- Armed factions consolidated control over different regions, splitting the country and prolonging the fighting
LONDON: When the Sudanese Armed Forces recaptured Khartoum from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in late March, soldiers and many of the capital’s remaining residents took to the streets to celebrate.
The RSF, which seized the city soon after the civil war erupted in April 2023, had ruled with an iron fist. When its fighters were finally dislodged, much of the population was glad to see the back of them.
There was even hope that the army’s victory could mark a turning point in the conflict, setting in train a series of events that would lead to an end to the fighting. Such optimism, however, looked misplaced as the rest of the world welcomed 2026.
Seven months after the SAF had reclaimed Khartoum, RSF fighters unleashed a fresh wave of violence against the population of another city, El-Fasher, 800 kilometers away on the other side of the country.
The RSF’s capture of North Darfur’s capital and the days of bloodletting that followed marked one of the darkest chapters in Sudan’s history.
Fighters carried out mass executions, torture and rapes reminiscent of the 2003-05 genocide inflicted on Darfur by the Janjaweed — the predecessor of the RSF.
Far from being the year when Sudan’s fortunes began to turn, 2025 will likely be remembered as the year when the vast nation, already bifurcated by the independence of South Sudan in 2011, was split once more, this time between a SAF-controlled east and a RSF-dominated west.
The International Crisis Group recently warned that the war “could settle into a prolonged stalemate that will morph into a durable partition.”
“Neighboring countries fear that such a failed-state scenario would spell even more long-term instability that spills beyond Sudan’s borders,” the think-tank added.
El-Fasher was the SAF’s last holdout in Darfur. Its strategic significance was reflected in the RSF’s brutal 18-month siege to break the city.
When the group finally succeeded on Oct. 26, it consolidated its hold over Darfur and cemented the dividing line running through the middle of Sudan.
The RSF now controls most of western Sudan and large areas of the Kordofan region.
The SAF, meanwhile, controls the central areas around Khartoum, the north and the east, including Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast.
Kordofan, a vast agricultural area made up of three states and home to the nation’s oil fields, has now become the focus of the fighting.
The violence there has escalated in recent weeks, with hundreds of civilians killed since late October, according to the UN.
On Dec. 4, a children’s nursery and a hospital in Kalogi were hit by a drone strike, killing 114 people including 63 children.
Another drone strike on Dec. 13 killed six Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers, who had been deployed to South Kordofan to oversee disputed territory between Sudan and South Sudan.
Sudan’s largest oil field, Heglig, which is located near the border and supplies both countries, has now fallen to the RSF.
Kordofan is also strategically significant because it spans the supply lines to the west of the country.
With the world’s gaze distracted by Gaza and Ukraine, Sudan’s humanitarian crisis continued to spiral in 2025.
UN agencies say the conflict is now the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and largest displacement crisis, while the International Rescue Committee describes it as the largest humanitarian crisis ever recorded.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed, more than 12 million displaced, and 30 million — two thirds of the population — are in need of aid. Half the population faces acute hunger. Areas of Darfur and Kordofan are already in the grip of famine.
“We’re really looking at the most devastating war in Sudan’s history,” Ahmed Soliman, senior research fellow at Chatham House, said in a recent podcast. “It’s shocking and globally the worst humanitarian crisis without a doubt.”
Speaking shortly after the fall of El-Fasher, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the conflict was “spiraling out of control.”
But the conflict had spiraled long before the horror of the RSF’s onslaught. El-Fasher just represented a sickening nadir.
About 260,000 people were trapped in El-Fasher when it was finally overrun. The RSF had recently completed an earth barrier encircling the city to block people from leaving.
The group’s fighters videoed themselves gunning down residents both in the city and as they tried to flee.
In one incident, more than 460 men, women and children at the Saudi Maternity Hospital were massacred.
Satellite images analyzed by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab showed pools of blood on the ground and piles of bodies in the hospital car park.
Victims and witnesses recounted sickening acts of brutality and sexual violence.
One woman told Amnesty International that she had tried to flee the Abu Shouk neighborhood with her five children and a group of neighbors but were stopped by RSF fighters.
Both she and her 14-year-old daughter were raped. Her daughter died a few days later after reaching a clinic outside the city.
A 34-year-old man told the human rights monitor that he was among a group of 20 men who had managed to cross the earth berm but were caught by RSF fighters.
They were forced to lie down before the gunmen opened fire, killing 17 of them.
“The RSF were killing people as if they were flies,” he said. “It was a massacre. None of the people killed that I have seen were armed soldiers.”
The International Criminal Court said last month it was taking immediate steps to preserve and collect evidence related to the El-Fasher atrocities for use in future prosecutions.
Even before El-Fasher, the RSF had been widely accused of carrying out war crimes and crimes against humanity, with the US government determining that the group had committed acts of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
The shocking images that emerged from El-Fasher have given new impetus to international efforts to try to end the conflict.
The war stems from the aftermath of the downfall of President Omar Bashir amid mass protests against his rule.
After the civilian aspect of a power sharing agreement was shut out of the transitional process in 2021, a power struggle emerged between SAF commander Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and RSF chief Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.
The rivalry eventually led to the outbreak of war in April 2023.
Since El-Fasher fell, the “Quad” group of mediators of Saudi Arabia, the US, Egypt and the UAE have intensified efforts to secure a ceasefire and a peace settlement.
During his visit to Washington last month, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman encouraged US President Donald Trump to help bring the conflict to an end.
The RSF has said it would agree to the Quad’s roadmap, which includes an initial three-month humanitarian truce leading to a permanent ceasefire and transition to civilian rule.
On Dec. 16, Al-Burhan declared he was ready to work with the Trump administration to resolve the conflict.
For those suffering in Sudan’s conflict zones, it is a faint glimmer of hope after a year of unfathomable suffering.
Whether 2026 will see a change in the fortunes of Sudanese, only time will tell.
