Frankly Speaking: Does the UK still matter to the Middle East?

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Updated 03 July 2023
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Frankly Speaking: Does the UK still matter to the Middle East?

  • Despite Brexit and mistakes, former Minister for Middle East Alistair Burt says UK still has diplomatic clout, military exports and permanent seat at UN Security Council
  • Middle East is changing and West needs to understand and watch, not necessarily get involved in region’s affairs, he tells Arab News current-affairs talk show

DUBAI: Former UK MP and two-time minister of state, the Right Honorable Alistair Burt, has admitted that “policy errors have been made” by the UK government that have affected its relationship with the Arab world, but that the region “remains of great interest and importance” to the country.

Appearing on the Arab News current-affairs talk show “Frankly Speaking,” Burt, who has served as UK minister for the Middle East, said that “the essential thing is that the long historical ties and the relationship between us means there will always be an interest and an involvement.”

Burt, who has visited the region twice this year and still retains close ties with officials and leaders there, explained how his revelation comes as part of a broader recognition of the evolving dynamics in the Middle East and the need to reassess the UK’s role and engagement there.

He stressed the importance of acknowledging past mistakes as an important step toward building better diplomatic relationships in the future, saying that if the government “has made mistakes in the past, we’re very anxious to make sure they’re put right in the future.”

Burt has twice held ministerial positions in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office: as parliamentary under-secretary of state from 2010 to 2013 and as minister of state for the Middle East and North Africa from 2017 to 2019.

He argues that the UK still has a “lot of clout in the region,” thanks to its strong trade links, common security interests and “exceptionally good ambassadors throughout the area.”

Taking note of the landmark peace deal that was brokered by China between Saudi and Iran in March, Burt emphasized that this deal could be a turning point in regional politics. Still, he cautioned that ensuring both parties would follow the agreement would be “complex,” adding that “Iran has not always been in a position to deliver on everything it might have signed up.”

That being said, Burt expressed his views on the West taking a back seat in the region’s affairs and that it should be prepared to “watch rather than be involved.” When asked if the deal comes as a “slap in the face” of the West, Burt disagreed with that as a description “because that assumes that everything revolves around us, and it doesn’t.”




Burt, who has served as UK minister for the Middle East, appearing on the Arab News current-affairs talk show Frankly Speaking. (AN Photo)

However, he did note that a more stable Saudi-Iran dynamic could lead to de-escalation in other conflicts, such as the war in Yemen. With the growing willingness to participate in diplomatic dialogue, both countries have the opportunity to de-escalate tensions and redirect their focus toward resolving the decade-long war in Yemen.

Burt has visited Yemen several times and called the crisis there “deeply, deeply distressing” and urged the potential players to create a “peace with compromise.”

He warned that the “total domination of one group over another, whether it’s Houthis or anyone else, is not a basis for long-term stability; it only produces the opportunity for more conflict going forward in the future.”

He cautioned that “the structure of Yemen will have to be looked at. The position of the south and the potential opportunities there for a different constitutional structure.”

The UK has recently appointed a new ambassador to Yemen, lawyer and diplomat Abda Sharif, who is well known and admired by Burt. He called her a “very capable and an outstanding choice of ambassador” for Yemen.

He said that she arrives at a “good time,” but admitted that while the UK’s diplomatic experience will be “looked for” in Yemen, ultimately, the UK will “not be the arbiters” in the conflict.

If the UK government has made mistakes in the past, we’re very anxious to make sure they’re put right in the future.

Alastair Burt

When it came to China’s increased role in the Middle East following its brokering of the Saudi-Iran deal, Burt said that “the region is changing, and I think the region’s influences are changing,” and “China is looking for new opportunities.”

He said he is not surprised by the findings of a recent study conducted by Arab News and YouGov, which revealed that 80 percent of Palestinians would accept a Chinese offer to mediate in its conflict with Israel, underscoring the disillusionment and distrust that exists toward traditional partners.

He added that the study’s findings indicated how “distrusted others have become.” However, he also cautioned against blindly accepting any new entrant’s motives, urging stakeholders to be wary and judge them on “what they do, not just what they say.”

His comments reflect the growing skepticism toward established mediators in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and highlight the need for fresh approaches to address the longstanding crisis.

Burt, who has long been a vocal advocate of a two-state solution, admitted that “so many in the Palestinian community” have “lost faith in the opportunity of a two-state solution” and “the degree of faith in their leadership.”

He also noted that for a long time, any criticism of Israel’s policies was met with accusations of antisemitism, which has stifled legitimate discussions on the conflict.




Burt also commented on the burning of a copy of the Qur’an outside a mosque in Sweden during the recent Eid Al-Adha holiday during his appearance on Frankly Speaking. (AN Photo)

The former UK politician said his country is “extremely concerned about the actions of the activities of the state of Israel,” and that people now realize they can “be a friend of Israel but not a friend of the government,” and that Netanyahu’s actions toward occupation and settlements should face “legitimate criticisms.”

Burt also commented on the burning of a copy of the Qur’an outside a mosque in Sweden during the recent Eid Al-Adha holiday, which has sparked outrage across the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Swedish police had initially given Salwan Momika, the perpetrator of the crime, a permit for the protest under the country’s free speech laws. Police in Stockholm are now investigating the incident for incitement of hatred. Momika has vowed to repeat his actions within days.

Burt slammed the act, saying: “It’s nothing to do with freedom of expression or freedom of speech. The burning of sacred books as a provocation is always wrong and should always be prevented. Any sensible state would do so.”

He added that the threat posed by the rise in expression of hate is “very, very dangerous and very scary” and said that no one could afford to be complacent, cautioning that it could “spark anywhere.”

Looking into other regional crises, such as Sudan, the UK has been criticized for its lack of decisive action after evacuating diplomats over citizens when fighting broke out in the North African country on April 15.

Burt defended the actions of the government, which resulted in cases such as the death of an elderly disabled British woman who starved after snipers shot her husband, despite repeated calls to the British Embassy that her family says was just meters from their home.

He said that the “sudden outbreak of violence caught a lot of people by surprise,” but that the government “worked very hard to get people out in very difficult circumstances.”

He added that he knew “Foreign Office staff who went out into danger zones in order to seek to ensure that citizens could get away.”

But he admitted that “when conflict arises, you can’t guarantee everyone’s safety … what it demonstrates is that there are almost impossible decisions to make in these circumstances … . I have been involved in hostage situations where we’ve made such a decision, and something has gone wrong, and lives have been lost. So, you can’t always get it right.”

 


After decades in Assad jails, political prisoner wants justice

Updated 4 sec ago
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After decades in Assad jails, political prisoner wants justice

He has made it out alive after 43 years in jail, but tens of thousands of Syrian families are still searching for their loved ones who disappeared long ago in Syria’s hellish prison system
Showing old pictures of him in his pilot uniform, Tatari said he was not seeking revenge, but stressed that “everyone must be held accountable for their crimes“

DAMASCUS: Syrian fighter pilot Ragheed Tatari was 26 when he was arrested. Now 70, the country’s longest-serving political prisoner is finally free after Bashar Assad’s fall, seeking justice and accountability.

Tatari, arrested in 1981 and sentenced to life behind bars, was among scores of prisoners who walked free when longtime ruler Assad was overthrown on December 8 in an Islamist-led offensive.

He has made it out alive after 43 years in jail, but tens of thousands of Syrian families are still searching for their loved ones who disappeared long ago in Syria’s hellish prison system.

“I came close to death under torture,” Tatari told AFP in his small Damascus apartment.

Since a military field court gave him a life sentence for “collaborating with foreign countries” — an accusation he denies — Tatari was moved from one prison to another, first under late president Hafez Assad and then his son Bashar who succeeded him in 2000.

Showing old pictures of him in his pilot uniform, Tatari said he was not seeking revenge, but stressed that “everyone must be held accountable for their crimes.”

“We do not want anyone to be imprisoned” without due process, said Tatari.

More than two million Syrians were jailed under the Assad dynasty’s rule, half of them after anti-government protests in 2011 escalated into civil war, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

The Britain-based monitor says around 200,000 died in custody.

Diab Serriya, co-founder of the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Saydnaya Prison, said that Tatari was “the longest-serving political prisoner in Syria and the Middle East.”

Rights group Amnesty International has called the notorious Saydnaya prison outside Damascus a “human slaughterhouse.”

Tatari had been detained there, but he said his 15 years in the Palmyra prison in the Syrian desert were the most difficult.

The Palmyra facility operated “without any discipline, any laws and any humanity,” Tatari said.

Detainees were “not afraid of torture — we wished for death,” he added.

“Everything that has been said about torture in Palmyra... is an understatement.”

“A guard could kill a prisoner if he was displeased with him,” Tatari said, adding that inmates were forced under torture to say phrases like “Hafez Assad is your god,” although he refused to do so.

In 1980, Palmyra witnessed a massacre of hundreds of mostly Islamist detainees, gunned down by helicopters or executed in their cells after a failed assassination attempt on Hafez Assad.

Tatari said he was completely disconnected from the outside world there, only learning of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union through a prisoner who had returned from a hospital visit.

In Sweida prison in the south, where Tatari was transferred after the 2011 revolt began, some inmates had phones that they would keep hidden from the guards.

“The cell phone gets you out of prison, it makes you feel alive,” he said, recalling how he used to conceal his device in a hole dug in his cell.

But after his phone was discovered, he was transferred to a prison in Tartus — his final detention facility before gaining freedom.

Tatari was one of several military officers who were opposed to Syria’s intervention in Lebanon in 1976, and to the violent repression in the early 1980s of the Muslim Brotherhood, Syria’s main opposition force at the time.

“Many of us were against involving the army in political operations,” he said.

After two of his fellow pilots defected and fled to Jordan in 1980, he escaped to Egypt and then on to Jordan.

But he returned when security forces began harassing his family and was arrested on arrival.

His wife was pregnant at the time with their first and only son.

For years, the family assumed Tatari was dead, before receiving a proof of life in 1997 after paying bribes, a common practice under the Assads’ rule.

It was then that Tatari was finally able to meet his son, then aged 16, under the watchful eye of guards during the family’s first authorized prison visit that year.

“I was afraid... I ended the meeting after 15 minutes,” Tatari said.

His wife has since died and their son left Syria, having received threats at the start of the protest movement, which had spiralled into war and eventually led to Assad’s overthrow.

During his time behind bars, Tatari said he “used to escape prison with my thoughts, daydreams and drawing.”

“The regime getting toppled overnight was beyond my dreams... No one expected it to happen so quickly.”

Without meat, families in Gaza struggle to celebrate Islam’s Eid Al-Adha holiday

Updated 24 min 37 sec ago
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Without meat, families in Gaza struggle to celebrate Islam’s Eid Al-Adha holiday

  • No fresh meat has entered Gaza for three months
  • Some of the little livestock left was on sale at a makeshift pen set up in the vast tent camp of Muwasi in the southern part of Gaza’s Mediterranean coast

MUWASI, Gaza Strip: With the Gaza Strip devastated by war and siege, Palestinians struggled Thursday to celebrate one of the most important Islamic holidays.

To mark Eid Al-Adha – Arabic for the Festival of Sacrifice — Muslims traditionally slaughter a sheep or cow and give away part of the meat to the poor as an act of charity. Then they have a big family meal with sweets. Children get gifts of new clothes.

But no fresh meat has entered Gaza for three months. Israel has blocked shipments of food and other aid to pressure Hamas to release hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the war. And nearly all the territory’s homegrown sheep, cattle and goats are dead after 20 months of Israeli bombardment and ground offensives.

Some of the little livestock left was on sale at a makeshift pen set up in the vast tent camp of Muwasi in the southern part of Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.

But no one could afford to buy. A few people came to look at the sheep and goats, along with a cow and a camel. Some kids laughed watching the animals and called out the prayers connected to the holiday.

“I can’t even buy bread. No meat, no vegetables,” said Abdel Rahman Madi. “The prices are astronomical.”

The Eid commemorates the test of faith of the Prophet Ibrahim – Abraham in the Bible – and his willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of submission to God. The day is usually one of joy for children – and a day when businesses boom a bit as people buy up food and gifts.

But prices for everything have soared amid the blockade, which was only slightly eased two weeks ago. Meat and most fresh fruits and vegetables disappeared from the markets weeks ago.

At a street market in the nearby city of Khan Younis, some stalls had stuffed sheep toys and other holiday knickknacks and old clothes. But most people left without buying any gifts after seeing the prices.

“Before, there was an Eid atmosphere, the children were happy … Now with the blockade, there’s no flour, no clothes, no joy,” said Hala Abu Nqeira, a woman looking through the market. “We just go to find flour for our children. We go out every day looking for flour at a reasonable price, but we find it at unbelievable prices.”

Israel’s campaign against Hamas has almost entirely destroyed Gaza’s ability to feed itself. The UN says 96 percent of the livestock and 99 percent of the poultry are dead. More than 95 percent of Gaza’s prewar cropland is unusable, either too damaged or inaccessible inside Israeli military zones, according to a land survey published this week by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Israel barred all food and other supplies from entering Gaza for more than two months. It eased the blockade two weeks ago to allow a trickle of aid trucks in for the UN to distribute. The trucks have brought in some food items, mainly flour. But the UN says it has struggled to delivery much of the incoming aid because of looting or Israeli military restrictions.

Almost the entire population of more than 2 million people have been driven from their homes, and most have had to move multiple times to escape Israeli offensives.

Rasha Abu Souleyma said she recently slipped back to her home in Rafah — from which her family had fled to take refuge in Khan Younis — to find some possessions she’d left behind.

She came back with some clothes, pink plastic sunglasses and bracelets that she gave to her two daughters as Eid gifts.

“I can’t buy them clothes or anything,” the 38-year-old said. “I used to bring meat in Eid so they would be happy, but now we can’t bring meat, and I can’t even feed the girls with bread.”

Near her, a group of children played on makeshift swings made of knotted and looped ropes.

Karima Nejelli, a displaced woman from Rafah, pointed out that people in Gaza had now marked both Eid Al-Adha and the other main Islamic holiday, Eid Al-Fitr, two times each under the war. “During these four Eids, we as Palestinians did not see any kind of joy, no sacrifice, no cookies, no buying Eid clothes or anything.”


Iraq holds Kurdish government legally responsible for continued oil smuggling

Updated 05 June 2025
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Iraq holds Kurdish government legally responsible for continued oil smuggling

  • The ministry reserves the right to take all legal measures in the matter, it added
  • Control over oil and gas has long been a source of tension between Baghdad and Irbil

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s oil ministry said on Thursday it holds the Kurdish regional government (KRG) legally responsible for the continued smuggling of oil from the Kurdish region outside the country.

The ministry reserves the right to take all legal measures in the matter, it added.

Control over oil and gas has long been a source of tension between Baghdad and Irbil.

Iraq is under pressure from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut output to compensate for having produced more than its agreed volume. OPEC counts oil flows from Kurdistan as part of Iraq’s quota.

In a ruling issued in 2022, Iraq’s federal court deemed an oil and gas law regulating the oil industry in Iraqi Kurdistan unconstitutional and demanded that Kurdish authorities hand over their crude oil supplies.

The ministry said the KRG’s failure to comply with the law has hurt both oil exports and public revenue, forcing Baghdad to cut output from other fields to meet OPEC quotas.

The ministry added that it had urged the KRG to hand over crude produced from its fields, warning that failure to do so could result in significant financial losses and harm the country’s international reputation and oil commitments.

Negotiations to resume Kurdish oil exports via the Iraq-Turkiye oil pipeline, which once handled about 0.5 percent of global oil supply, have stalled over payment terms and contract details.


Jordan, Spain sign partnership deal, affirm support for Palestinian state

Updated 05 June 2025
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Jordan, Spain sign partnership deal, affirm support for Palestinian state

  • King Abdullah meets King Felipe VI, Spanish PM in Madrid
  • Jordan plays vital role in supporting Palestinians, Pedro Sanchez says

LONDON: Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday witnessed the signing of a declaration to establish a strategic partnership between their countries.

The deal is designed to increase cooperation in the economic, commercial, social, cultural and defense fields. A memorandum of understanding for the agriculture sector and an extradition agreement were also signed, the Jordan News Agency reported.

During his visit to Madrid, King Abdullah also met King Felipe VI of Spain. He praised the European nation’s support for Palestinian rights, its efforts to achieve peace in the region and its commitment to ending the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip.

He emphasized the significance of Spain’s decision to recognize the Palestinian state and said Jordan was working to gain greater European support for the Arab plan aimed at rebuilding Gaza without displacing its residents.

Sanchez said Jordan had a vital role in supporting Palestinians and that the war in Gaza must end.

King Abdullah was joined for the talks by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Director of the King’s Office Alaa Batayneh and Jordan’s Ambassador to Spain Raghad Al-Saqqa.


Red Sea marine traffic up 60 percent after Houthis narrowed targets, EU commander says

Updated 05 June 2025
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Red Sea marine traffic up 60 percent after Houthis narrowed targets, EU commander says

  • Shipping traffic, which reached a low of 20-23 ships daily in August last year, is still short of an average of 72-75 ships a day, said Gryparis
  • Gryparis said he could not guarantee that merchant ships won’t be attacked

MADRID: Red Sea marine traffic has increased by 60 percent to 36-37 ships a day since August 2024, but is still short of volumes seen before Yemen’s Houthis began attacking ships in the region, according to the commander of the EU’s Aspides naval mission.

The number of merchant ships using the narrow Bab Al-Mandab strait increased after missile and drone attacks by the Houthis slowed and the US and the rebel group signed a ceasefire deal, Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis said in an interview in Madrid.

But shipping traffic, which reached a low of 20-23 ships daily in August last year, is still short of an average of 72-75 ships a day seen before the Houthis began attacks in the Red Sea in November in 2023 in support of Palestinians over Israel’s war in Gaza, said Gryparis.

The mission, which was established to safeguard navigation in the strategic trade route linking the Mediterranean with the Gulf of Asia through the Suez Canal, was extended in February when it was also tasked with tracking illegal arms shipments and monitoring vessels carrying sanctioned Russian oil.

The last attack on a merchant ship took place in November 2024 and the Houthis have also narrowed their objectives, saying their targets are Israeli ships and ships that have a connection with Israel or have docked at an Israeli port, Gryparis said.

“If you have a vessel that does not correspond to this criteria... there is a huge possibility — more than 99 percent — that you’re not going to be targeted by the Houthis,” Gryparis said.

Still, Gryparis said he could not guarantee that merchant ships won’t be attacked.

Some companies have been deterred from using the route because of the mission’s lack of ships, which can cause delays of as much as a week for those seeking to be escorted through the area, he said.

He said the mission has between two and three ships operating at one time and has requested the EU provide it with 10 ships to increase its capacity for protection.

The mission has provided close protection to 476 ships, shot down 18 drones, destroyed two remote-controlled boats used to attack ships and intercepted four ballistic missiles, he said.