British Foreign Office Minister, Sayeeda Warsi Resigns Over Government Stance On Gaza

Lady Warsi, the senior Foreign Office Minister, has resigned from the government in protest at its policy on Gaza, describing it as “morally indefensible”.  In her resignation letter to the prime minister, David Cameron, Warsi wrote that Britain's support for Israeli military action against Hamas, which has resulted in

the deaths of more than 1,800 Palestinians over the past month, "is morally indefensible, is not in Britain's national interest and will have a long term detrimental impact on our reputation".

Warsi's decision to quit makes hers the first ministerial resignation 'on principle' since the coalition was formed in 2010 and comes in the wake of attacks on the prime minister's handling of the Gaza crisis by Labour leader Ed Miliband - and a 72-hour humanitarian truce agreed between Israel and Hamas in Cairo on Monday evening.

Speaking exclusively to The Huffington Post UK in her first interview since resigning on Tuesday morning, the Tory peer accused the coalition of failing to act as an "honest broker" in the Middle East and called for an immediate arms embargo against Israel.

"The British government can only play a constructive role in solving the Middle East crisis if it is an honest broker," the former Foreign Office minister said, "and at the moment I do not think it is.

Warsi, a baroness who sits in the House of Lords, became Britain's first Muslim to serve in Cabinet in 2010 but was later demoted to be a senior minister of state at the Foreign Office and a minister for faith and communities.
"With deep regret I have this morning written to the Prime Minister (and) tendered my resignation. I can no longer support Govt policy on #Gaza," Warsi, 43, said on her official Twitter feed.

Though no longer a full member of Cabinet she still had the right to attend Cabinet meetings. It was not immediately clear whether she was resigning from both her ministerial roles.

While the British government has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Prime Minister David Cameron has come under criticism from the Labour party for refusing to describe Israel's actions as disproportionate.