David Miliband, the UK foreign secretary, defended his government’s action to impose sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank in an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, September 9 (18 Shahrivar), and said the reason for the move was that “the two-state solution is being destroyed.”

In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today program, Miliband said the action by the UK government yesterday was a “coordinated and joint” step with “a number of international allies” of the country, and said the two-state solution “in my view is the only hope for the security and dignity of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.”

Miliband, in a speech he delivered yesterday, 17 Shahrivar, in the British Parliament, accused Israeli settlers in the West Bank of “ethnic cleansing” and announced sanctions against these settlers. Under these sanctions, imports of goods into the UK from Israeli settlements in the West Bank will be banned.