LONDON: Britain said on Thursday it had arranged for some orphans to be brought home from Syria, joining Germany, Belgium and Australia in repatriating children whose parents were suspected members of Daesh.
Britain has generally been reluctant to allow adults who traveled to Syria to return home but Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it was right to bring children home.
“These innocent, orphaned, children should never have been subjected to the horrors of war,” Raab said.
“We have facilitated their return home, because it was the right thing to do. Now they must be allowed the privacy and given the support to return to a normal life.”
Raab did not say how many children were returning. The charity Save The Children said in October that more than 60 British children were trapped in north-eastern Syria.
Many Western countries have struggled with how to deal with citizens who went to the Middle East to join groups such as Daesh, which was driven out of its last territorial enclave in March by US-backed forces.
Earlier this month Turkey started to deport captives from Daesh.
Britain repatriates some orphans left in Syria
Britain repatriates some orphans left in Syria
- Britain has generally been reluctant to allow adults who traveled to Syria to return home
- Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it was right to bring children home
Blair dropped from Gaza ‘peace board’ after Arab objections
- Former UK PM was viewed with hostility over role in Iraq War
- He reportedly met Netanyahu late last month to discuss plans
LONDON: Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has been withdrawn from the US-led Gaza “peace council” following objections by Arab and Muslim countries, The Guardian reported.
US President Donald Trump has said he would chair the council. Blair was long floated for a prominent role in the administration, but has now been quietly dropped, according to the Financial Times.
Blair had been lobbying for a position in the postwar council and oversaw a plan for Gaza from his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change that involved Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Supporters of the former British leader cited his role in the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of conflict and violence in Northern Ireland.
His detractors, however, highlighted his former position as representative of the Middle East Quartet, made up of the UN, EU, Russia and US, which aimed to bring about peace in the Middle East.
Furthermore, Blair’s involvement in the Iraq War is viewed with hostility across the Arab world.
After Trump revealed his 20-point plan to end the Israel-Hamas war in September, Blair was the only figure publicly named as taking a potential role in the postwar peace council.
The US president supported his appointment and labeled him a “very good man.”
A source told the Financial Times that Blair’s involvement was backed by the US and Israel.
“The Americans like him and the Israelis like him,” the person said.
The US plan for Gaza was criticized in some quarters for proposing a separate Gaza framework that did not include the West Bank, stoking fears that the occupied Palestinian territories would become separate polities indefinitely.
Trump said in October: “I’ve always liked Tony, but I want to find out that he’s an acceptable choice to everybody.”
Blair is reported to have held an unpublicized meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late last month to discuss plans.
His office declined to comment to The Guardian, but an ally said the former prime minister would not be sitting on Gaza’s “board of peace.”
