The new direction for the UK's foreign policy regarding the Middle East came shortly after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with US President Donald Trump in Scotland.

Just a day later, on July 29, Starmer interrupted his cabinet ministers' summer break for an emergency meeting, after which the policy turnaround was presented in London.

In a statement, Starmer, the leader of the center-left Labour Party, said the UK could recognize Palestine as a state as soon as September unless Israel's government moved toward meeting certain conditions, including a ceasefire, not annexing the occupied West Bank and committing to a long-term peace process.

Britain believes "statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people," Starmer said. His government is using the recognition of a Palestinian state as a means of political pressure to push forward the so-called two-state solution.

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Until now, the UK has delayed its recognition of a Palestinian state in part because of the country's own historical responsibility. Between 1920 and 1948, Britain was the administrative power in Palestine, which had previously been part of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1917, the British government issued a statement — the Balfour Declaration, named after then-British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour — that said it supported the idea of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. The........

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