BICOM

Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday appointed Dominic Raab as the new Foreign Secretary.

Raab studied law at Oxford and from 2000-2006 was a legal adviser at the Foreign Office and led a team at the British Embassy in the Hague working on war crimes cases. In the Summer of 1998 he studied at Bir Zeit university near Ramallah and worked for one of the lead Palestinian Oslo negotiators assessing West Bank projects for the World Bank.

In 2010 Raab was elected member of Parliament for Esher and Walton in Surrey. Following the 2017 general election, he was appointed Minister of State for Courts and Justice. In January 2018, Raab was moved to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. In July 2018, he was appointed Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union but he resigned on 15 November 2018, in opposition to the Draft Withdrawal Agreement which he had been involved in negotiating with the EU.

Raab said on Twitter yesterday: “Huge honour to be appointed Foreign Secretary & First Secretary of State by PM. Taking up the reins from a class act in @Jeremy_Hunt. I’m thoroughly looking forward to working with a brilliant team, as we rise to the challenges ahead & grasp the global opportunities for the UK.”

Raab has in the past criticised Israeli settlement construction for undermining prospects for a contiguous Palestinian state. But he rejected calls to recognise a Palestinian state in 2011 arguing that: “Voting for a Palestinian state at the United Nations risks entrenching intransigence on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Peace requires political leadership, not a legal mirage.” In an article, published on his website, Raab wrote about the blockade of Gaza arguing: “The blockade of Gaza has been roundly lambasted – but there is no question that blockade is a legitimate means of maritime warfare, as set out in the 1994 San Remo manual, widely accepted as reflecting international law in this area. There is no doubt that Israel has a right of self-defence against Hamas, a terrorist group, running the Gaza strip.”

Raab will be faced with the immediate challenge of resolving the current dispute with Iran after it seized a British flagged oil tanker in Omani waters on 19 July.