Ed Miliband, the new UK foreign secretary, on Israel, Iraq, Syria and Iran

Ed Miliband, the new UK foreign secretary, on Israel, Iraq, Syria and Iran

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Rayhan Uddin
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Tue, 07/21/2026 - 14:55

Middle East Eye breaks down former Labour leader's views on key foreign policy issues

Britain's Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband leaves 10 Downing Street in London on 20 July 2026 (AFP/Henry Nicholls)

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Having initially been tipped for the role of chancellor, former Labour leader Ed Miliband has been appointed foreign secretary by Andy Burnham, the UK's new prime minister.

Accepting the role, Miliband said that it was an “honour and privilege” to take up the position. “My parents came to Britain as Jewish refugees from the Nazis,” he said. 

“To them, Britain was both a sanctuary and a beacon of hope in the global fight against fascism. I will carry my parents' faith in that spirit of Britain to my role representing our country.”

The former energy minister said the world faced greater instability and graver threats to international law and democracy than at any time since the Second World War. 

Miliband said he would strengthen alliances with the European Union, and work closely with Nato and the UN, as well as partners in the global south. 

He stated that Britain would continue to stand with Ukraine "against Russia’s illegal invasion", look to end the conflict in Iran and re-open the Strait of Hormuz, and “seek a sustainable peace in Palestine and Israel”. 

pic.twitter.com/FSZJKhI963
— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) July 20, 2026

A Labour MP for more than two decades, Miliband is not known as a foreign policy expert, but he has been outspoken on a number of international issues.

From opposing the war in Iraq, to voting against military action in Syria and supporting the recognition of a Palestinian state, Middle East Eye takes a look at Miliband’s past positions.

Iraq war was 'wrong'

When Miliband became the Labour leader in 2010, his opposition to the Iraq war became a key way of separating himself from his predecessors Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - and from his main rival, older brother David Miliband.

In his first conference speech as leader, Miliband said the war had led to a “fundamental loss of trust” in Labour. 

"I criticise nobody faced with making the toughest of decisions and I honour our troops who fought and died there, but I do believe that we were wrong. Wrong to take Britain to war," he told the conference. 

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David Miliband - who voted for the 2003 war and who was beaten by his brother in the Labour leadership contest - was caught on camera scolding his colleague Harriet Harman for applauding that section of the speech. 

“You voted for it, why are you clapping?" David asked. 

There were a number of other senior Labour figures who also chose not to applaud. Among them was Andy Burnham, who like David, voted for the war. 

Ed Miliband did not vote for or against the Iraq war as he became MP for Doncaster North in 2005, two years after the invasion.

Miliband said that while he was a cabinet minister under Gordon Brown, between 2008 and 2010, he was unable to speak out on Iraq due to collective ministerial responsibility. 

Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry into the war found that Tony Blair’s rush to join the US invasion of Iraq over fears of longtime ruler Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons programme was based on “flawed intelligence”.

The report also suggested that the rise of the Islamic State group was partly due to the US and UK led invasion in 2003. 

Syria vote

One of Miliband’s defining moments as Labour leader came in August 2013, when he opposed Britain taking military action in Syria. 

Miliband led his Labour MPs in opposing British strikes in Syria, days after longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons against his own people during the Syrian civil war. 

Labour’s opposition, as well as some Conservative and Liberal Democrat lawmakers, defied David Cameron's government, handing it a rare policy defeat.

Barack Obama’s US administration had been primed to openly intervene in Syria and enforce a “red line” over the use of chemical weapons, but ultimately did not. US officials later confirmed that the UK vote derailed Washington’s plans to intervene. 

'I believe then, and I do now, that one of the most important lessons of the Iraq war is we shouldn’t go into military intervention without a clear plan, including an exit strategy'

- Ed Miliband

Some British commentators have cited the Syria vote as a reason why the 56-year-old should not be foreign secretary. 

“Miliband’s hand in this tragic litany should have been enough for Andy Burnham to exclude him from consideration for the position of foreign secretary,” David Blair, the Telegraph’s chief foreign affairs commentator, wrote. 

Assad's government eventually fell in December 2024 after a lightning offensive by forces led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, who now leads Syria. 

Speaking after Assad’s fall, Miliband said he did not regret his position over a decade earlier. 

“No. First of all, I very much welcome the fall of President Assad, who is a brutal dictator,” he said. 

“The decision I was confronted with, though, in 2013 was whether we did a bombing of President Assad without any clear plan for British military engagement, where it would lead and what it would mean.

“And I believe then, and I do now, that one of the most important lessons of the Iraq war is we shouldn’t go into military intervention without a clear plan, including an exit strategy.”

Palestine recognition and Israel criticism 

Miliband has long supported the idea of Britain recognising a Palestinian state. 

In a symbolic vote in October 2014, he led his Labour MPs in voting for recognition. 

Months earlier, Miliband was critical of Israel’s ground invasion in Gaza and its killing of Palestinian civilians, which he described as “unacceptable and unjustifiable”. 

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At the time, he said that David Cameron’s government needed to do more to condemn Israel’s actions. 

"Hamas is a terrorist organisation and I utterly condemn their rocket attacks on Israel and the murder of Israeli soldiers, but that cannot excuse the scale of the loss of life of innocent Palestinian civilians, including children, that we are seeing," Miliband said. 

"The government needs to send a message to both sides that these actions are wrong and that there needs to be an immediate ceasefire and a long-term solution to this tragic conflict."

During the 2014 war, which lasted for 50 days, Israeli forces killed more than 2,200 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians. 

In an interview with the Jewish Chronicle a year later, Miliband described himself as a friend of Israel and said that he opposed boycotts against it. “I consider myself a strong friend of Israel,” he said. 

"Friends will disagree from time to time but it doesn’t in any way change my deep belief that we should seek to restart the negotiations, that we should have no tolerance with those who question the legitimacy of the state of Israel, that we should have no tolerance of proposals for boycott.”

More recently, under Keir Starmer’s government, Miliband is believed to have been a leading voice in bringing about the UK's official recognition of Palestine in September last year.

According to British media reports, Miliband, as well as Angela Rayner, Wes Streeting and Lisa Nandy, put pressure on Starmer to take the step.

Opposed joining Iran war 

When the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in late February, Miliband was also a key figure in opposing UK involvement. 

'The idea that we have shared values with a racist, misogynistic self-confessed groper beggars belief'

- Ed Miliband on Donald Trump

Rachel Reeves, Yvette Cooper and Miliband, according to reports, strongly opposed UK military action. 

A source told the Spectator that Miliband “fundamentally doesn’t like Trump, and he doesn't like this Iran thing”. 

Starmer’s decision not to militarily support the US drove a wedge between the former prime minister and Trump. "This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with," Trump said. 

Miliband, who will now have to deal with Trump in his new role, has made no secret of his views on the US president. 

“The idea that we have shared values with a racist, misogynistic self-confessed groper beggars belief,” he told the BBC’s World at One, after Trump was first elected in late 2016. 

A year later, he wrote on X that Trump had “lowered the bar for idiocy”. 

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