LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday praised the hundreds of British troops who died fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq “alongside our allies,” in an oblique rebuke of US Vice President JD Vance, who has questioned the merits of a potential European peacekeeping force in Ukraine following the signing of any peace agreement between the country and Russia.
In his opening remarks before the start of a weekly parliamentary question session, Starmer specifically paid tribute to six British soldiers who died on patrol in Afghanistan when their vehicle was struck by an explosive. Thursday marks the 13-year anniversary of their deaths.
“These men fought and died for their country, our country,” Starmer told the House of Commons. “And across the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, 642 individuals died fighting for Britain alongside our allies, many more were wounded.”
Without directly referencing Vance, the prime minister said he and all lawmakers will “never forget their bravery and their sacrifice.”
Vance said in an interview with Fox News this week that an economic pact with Kyiv sought by President Donald Trump “is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.”
Though Vance has subsequently sought to head off criticism by noting that he did not specifically name any countries, his “random country” comment prompted anger, particularly in the UK and France.
Peacekeeping mission
British troops fought alongside the US in Afghanistan and Iraq in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US, while French troops were deployed to Afghanistan though not during the 2003 US-led war in Iraq.
Both Starmer, who has been careful not to criticize Trump over the past few days of frantic diplomacy, and French President Emmanuel Macron, have said that they are ready to deploy troops in a peacekeeping capacity in Ukraine after any peace deal, but have said that they would require further support from the US
No other countries have yet indicated they will be sending troops to any peacekeeping mission.
Trump has offered no US security guarantee and has, like Vance, indicated that an economic deal with Ukraine, that sees American money and people in the country but no forces, would be enough to fend off any future attack by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Minerals deal
In his overnight address to Congress, Trump appeared to soften his tone with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky following last Friday’s fractious meeting in the Oval Office.
Trump and Zelensky had been expected to sign off on a minerals deal, intended in part to pay back the US for aid it has sent Kyiv since the start of the war. But that plan was scrapped as the visit was ended abruptly after their meeting.
Starmer said he is doing “everything he can” to ensure the US and Europe are “working together on lasting peace” for Ukraine.
Vance’s interview with Fox News was recorded hours before a White House official confirmed on Monday evening that Trump had directed a pause of US assistance to Ukraine as he seeks to Zelensky to engage in negotiations to end the war which Russia launched in Feb. 2022.
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Starmer praises sacrifice of British troops in Afghanistan, Iraq in oblique rebuke to Vance
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Starmer praises sacrifice of British troops in Afghanistan, Iraq in oblique rebuke to Vance
- Starmer specifically paid tribute to six British soldiers who died on patrol in Afghanistan when their vehicle was struck by an explosive
- “These men fought and died for their country, our country,” Starmer told the House of Commons
Louvre heist probe still aims to ‘recover jewelry’, top prosecutor says
- Police believe they have arrested all four thieves who carried out the brazen October 19 robbery
PARIS: French investigators remain determined to find the imperial jewels stolen from the Louvre in October, a prosecutor has said.
Police believe they have arrested all four thieves who carried out the brazen October 19 robbery, making off with jewelry worth an estimated $102 million from the world-famous museum.
“The interrogations have not produced any new investigative elements,” top Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said this week, three months after the broad-daylight heist.
But the case remains a top priority, she underlined.
“Our main objective is still to recover the jewelry,” she said.
That Sunday morning in October, thieves parked a mover’s truck with an extendable ladder below the Louvre’s Apollo Gallery housing the French crown jewels.
Two of the thieves climbed up the ladder, broke a window and used angle grinders to cut glass display booths containing the treasures, while the other two waited below, investigators say.
The four then fled on high-powered motor scooters, dropping a diamond-and-emerald crown in their hurry.
But eight other items of jewelry — including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise — remain at large.
Beccuau said investigators were keeping an open mind as to where the loot might be.
“We don’t have any signals indicating that the jewelry is likely to have crossed the border,” she said, though she added: “Anything is possible.”
Detectives benefitted from contacts with “intermediaries in the art world, including internationally” as they pursued their probe.
“They have ways of receiving warning signals about networks of receivers of stolen goods, including abroad,” Beccuau said.
As for anyone coming forward to hand over the jewels, that would be considered to be “active repentance, which could be taken into consideration” later during a trial, she said.
A fifth suspect, a 38-year-old woman who is the partner of one of the men, has been charged with being an accomplice but was released under judicial supervision pending a trial.
Investigators still had no idea if someone had ordered the theft.
“We refuse to have any preconceived notions about what might have led the individuals concerned to commit this theft,” the prosecutor said.
But she said detectives and investigating magistrates were resolute.
“We haven’t said our last word. It will take as long as it takes,” she said.
Police believe they have arrested all four thieves who carried out the brazen October 19 robbery, making off with jewelry worth an estimated $102 million from the world-famous museum.
“The interrogations have not produced any new investigative elements,” top Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said this week, three months after the broad-daylight heist.
But the case remains a top priority, she underlined.
“Our main objective is still to recover the jewelry,” she said.
That Sunday morning in October, thieves parked a mover’s truck with an extendable ladder below the Louvre’s Apollo Gallery housing the French crown jewels.
Two of the thieves climbed up the ladder, broke a window and used angle grinders to cut glass display booths containing the treasures, while the other two waited below, investigators say.
The four then fled on high-powered motor scooters, dropping a diamond-and-emerald crown in their hurry.
But eight other items of jewelry — including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise — remain at large.
Beccuau said investigators were keeping an open mind as to where the loot might be.
“We don’t have any signals indicating that the jewelry is likely to have crossed the border,” she said, though she added: “Anything is possible.”
Detectives benefitted from contacts with “intermediaries in the art world, including internationally” as they pursued their probe.
“They have ways of receiving warning signals about networks of receivers of stolen goods, including abroad,” Beccuau said.
As for anyone coming forward to hand over the jewels, that would be considered to be “active repentance, which could be taken into consideration” later during a trial, she said.
A fifth suspect, a 38-year-old woman who is the partner of one of the men, has been charged with being an accomplice but was released under judicial supervision pending a trial.
Investigators still had no idea if someone had ordered the theft.
“We refuse to have any preconceived notions about what might have led the individuals concerned to commit this theft,” the prosecutor said.
But she said detectives and investigating magistrates were resolute.
“We haven’t said our last word. It will take as long as it takes,” she said.
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