Pak-origin UK home secretary Sajid Javid, son of bus driver, joins race to become British PM
London, May 27: Pakistani-origin UK home secretary Sajid Javid on Monday became the ninth contender for the post of British prime minister as he confirmed his intention to contest the Conservative Party leadership race starting next month.
The senior-most minister in the UK Cabinet made the announcement with a video message posted on Twitter, calling for people to join Team Saj .
"I'm standing to be the next leader of Conservatives & Prime Minister of our great country," read his statement.
"We need to restore trust, bring unity and create new opportunities across the UK. First and foremost, we must deliver Brexit. Join Team Saj to help me do just that," he said.
Javid, 49, becomes the latest candidate to throw their hat in the ring to enter Downing Street since Theresa May announced her intention to step down as Conservative leader and therefore as British PM on June 7.
A formal Tory party election process will kick off from June 10, with former foreign secretary Boris Johnson seen as a frontrunner for the PM post.
Others in the fray include Cabinet ministers Michael Gove, Rory Stewart, Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock and former ministers Dominic Raab, Esther McVey and Andrea Leadsom.
With the European Parliament election results throwing up a massive bruising for the Conservative Party and major wins for the newly-formed Brexit Party, all the leadership contenders are expected to focus all their attention on the delivery mechanism for Britain's exit from the European Union (EU).
"Hugely disappointing results but this is a verdict on our delivery of Brexit. There's a clear lesson: people want us to get on with it. Not another election or referendum asking if changed their mind. We'll need to unite as a party to deliver that. There are no other options," said Javid, who often highlights his humble roots as the son of Pakistani migrants whose father was a bus driver.
The investment banker-turned-politician has also found strong backing from within the British-Indian community and most recently called for closer India-UK ties at the annual Conservative Friends of India (CFIN) event.
"The new (post-Brexit) immigration system will be a skills-based system, which means it will not be based on nationality. It means that we will be even more open once we have left the EU to welcome even more of India's brightest and best," he said earlier this month.
Javid will now go head to head with the other contenders within the party before the list is whittled down by party MPs down to two that will clash in a vote put to the wider Tory membership from across the UK.
The winner of the vote is expected to take charge as Tory leader and the new British PM in July.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
