Grant Shapps 'disappointed' by Netanyahu's opposition to Palestinian state

Britain's defence chief says UK remains committed to two-state solution

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said there was no option other than a two-state solution for postwar Israel-Gaza. PA

UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has said opposition by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the creation of a Palestinian state is "disappointing".

"I don't think we get to a solution unless we have a two-state solution," he told Sky News on Sunday.

Mr Shapps added the UK "certainly remains wedded to" a two-state solution and that there "isn't another option".

Mr Shapps later told the BBC that "Palestinians deserve a sovereign state, Israel deserves to have the full ability to defend itself, its own security.

"Unless you pursue a two-state solution, I really don't see that there is another solution.

"Now, you'll get a lot of different views within the Israeli government, of course, it is a rainbow coalition.

"So we very much distinguish between the views of individuals and our overall support for Israel as a country."

The aftermath of an Israeli bombardment of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday. AFP

'Completely unacceptable'

Meanwhile, Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky News that Mr Netanyahu's opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state following the Israel-Gaza war was "completely unacceptable".

Ms Cooper repeated the words of her colleague, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, whose speech was disrupted by a group of pro-Palestinian protesters on Saturday, that opposing the creation of Palestinian state was "morally and practically wrong".

She also echoed Labour leader Keir Starmer's comments that "statehood of a people is not in the gift of its neighbour, it is the right of a people and it is the right of the Palestinian people".

The comments follow those made by Antonio Guterres at a Non-Aligned Movement summit in Uganda on Saturday, where the UN Secretary General said: "The refusal to accept a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable."