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LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will recall his cabinet from their summer break to discuss the situation in Gaza, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, amid growing pressure on the Labour government to recognize a Palestinian state.
Starmer’s office did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment on the report.
The paper said the move to recall his cabinet of ministers next week was set out on Sunday by Downing Street. The UK parliament and cabinet are currently in a summer recess until September 1.
The recall comes after Starmer said on Friday the British government would recognize a Palestinian state only as part of a negotiated peace deal, disappointing many in his Labour Party who want him to follow France in taking swifter action.
President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday France would recognize a Palestinian state, a plan that drew strong condemnation from Israel and the United States, after similar moves from Spain, Norway and Ireland last year.
More than 220 members of parliament in the UK, representing about a third of the House of Commons and mostly Labour members, wrote to Starmer on Friday urging him to recognize a Palestinian state.
Successive British governments have said they will formally recognize a Palestinian state when the time is right, without ever setting a timetable or specifying the necessary conditions.
Starmer’s approach to the issue has been complicated by the arrival in Scotland on Friday of US President Donald Trump, with whom he has built warm relations. In foreign policy terms, Britain has rarely diverged from the United States.
Israel has been facing growing international criticism, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government rejects, over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where images of starving Palestinians have alarmed the world.

NEW DELHI: India’s free trade agreement with Oman is almost finalized, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has announced, only days after New Delhi signed a long-awaited trade pact with the UK.
Negotiations between India and Oman on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement formally began in November 2023, with the first round in New Delhi and the second in Muscat.
When the talks concluded in March 2024, Oman sought revisions on market access terms and the final signature was postponed.
“We are in negotiations at an advanced stage with Oman — almost finalized,” Goyal told reporters on Saturday evening, two days after he signed a multibillion-dollar free trade deal with the UK.
“The free trade agreement between India and UK, the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement, clearly reflects the growing relevance and importance of India at the world stage.”
Under the pact, about 99 percent of Indian goods will get duty-free access to the UK market, and bilateral trade is expected to increase by over $34 billion in the next decade from the current $54 billion.
India has free trade agreements with more than 10 countries, including comprehensive economic partnership agreements with South Korea, Japan, and the UAE.
It is also in talks with the EU to conclude an FTA by the end of 2025, and also with Australia, with an interim deal signed in 2022 and a full one under negotiation.
If India finalizes its pact with Oman, it will be its second with a Gulf Cooperation Council country after the 2022 CEPA with the UAE.
While Oman is one of New Delhi’s smaller GCC trading partners — trailing behind the UAE and ������Ƶ, with bilateral trade volume accounting for about $10 billion — it remains strategically important, particularly in energy and logistics.
The FTA could further deepen these ties, Anil Wadhwa, New Delhi’s former envoy to Muscat, told Arab News.
“India and Oman both are set to benefit a lot from this FTA ... Oman and India have a trade volume between $8 billion and $10 billion annually, and 700 Indian companies have invested in Oman,” he said.
“Oman was keen on an FTA on the lines of the UAE. The main negotiations took less than 90 days. Since then, Oman wanted further concessions in petrochemicals and in marble ... It is understood that these negotiations are now nearing a closure.”
Economic cooperation plays a crucial role in India-GCC relations, with exports to India representing 71 percent of the bloc’s total exports.
India has been pursuing a free trade pact with the whole bloc for the past two decades. A framework agreement on economic cooperation was signed in 2004, but two rounds of negotiations, in 2006 and 2008, were inconclusive.
The agreement would give India access to a large and affluent market for its goods and also concessions on visas in a region, which is a second home for about 9 million Indian expat workers.
In January, GCC Secretary General Jasem Mohammed Al-Budaiwi said that the grouping would look forward to starting free trade negotiations with India in 2025.