UK’s careful diplomacy faces test ahead of G7 meeting

The telephone calls and WhatsApp messages continue apace this weekend between leaders, foreign ministers and diplomats, with the expectation that there are many more days to come in this conflict between Israel and Iran.

There are currently two so-called “crisis centres” running in the Foreign Office, both stood up in the last 48 hours.

One is handling the situation in the Middle East, the other the plane crash in Ahmedabad in India on Thursday.

The British government’s public response is very carefully calibrated.

In an interview the prime minister has done with Bloomberg and in the read outs of the conversations Sir Keir Starmer has had with fellow leaders, there is no explicit endorsement of Israel’s actions.

But there is a repeated acknowledgement of what are described as the UK’s “long…