The Foreign Secretary has spoken with her Israeli counterpart for the first time since the war with Iran began.
Yvette Cooper and Gideon Sa’ar held a phone call on Wednesday morning, after the JC revealed that no senior figures in the UK government had spoken with their Israeli counterparts since the outbreak of the war.
Israel’s foreign minister described the conversation – some 12 days after the conflict started – as “extensive”.
Sa’ar said Cooper was briefed on Israel’s “war against the Iranian terror regime”.
“I described the regime's savage attacks against us and its neighbouring states, while not possessing a nuclear umbrella. Imagine what it could do if it had nuclear weapons,” he wrote on X.
“I detailed the Iranian proxy Hezbollah's attacks against Israel's citizens and communities and even against Cyprus.”
He claimed that Lebanon is “under de facto Iranian occupation” via Hezbollah and called for the dismantling of the terror proxy.
Cooper has yet to comment publicly on the exchange.
The call comes after the JC reported that relations between Jerusalem and London are at their frostiest in years.
The prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has not spoken with Benjamin Netanyahu since the UK government’s decision to unilaterally recognise the state of Palestine last September.
By contrast, during the 12-day war last June, Starmer spoke with Netanyahu within hours of Israel launching strikes on Iran.
Labour sources told the JC that “relations at a ministerial level are non-existent” and that the UK currently has “no influence” with the Jewish state.
One source, a former minister, said: “The government’s hostility to Israel has made us completely irrelevant”.
Opposition figures have also voiced frustration with the government’s handling of relations with Israel.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised the government for allowing ties with Jerusalem to deteriorate so sharply, suggesting it was undermining Britain.
She told the JC: “It is in the UK’s national interest to be talking to Israel given how crucial the relationship is from a security and intelligence standpoint.”
Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK, said Starmer’s approach to diplomacy had left the UK “humiliated”.
To get more Politics news, click here to sign up for our free politics newsletter.