UN security council to hear calls for Israel to let more aid into Gaza

Calls for Israel to allow more aid into Gaza and to accept a future Palestinian state as necessary for its own security are expected to dominate a meeting of the UN security council in New York on Tuesday.

Before the meeting, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, met his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in New York to urge Israel to agree to a ceasefire and warn the US not to fuel the spread of the conflict.

Amir-Abdollahian said he had told the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, in Davos last week that “your action in escalating tension in the Red Sea and against Yemen is a strategic mistake”.

Turkey’s Hakan Fidan and France’s Stéphane Séjourné are among the foreign ministers who have flown to New York for the security council debate. Attenders are likely to hear extended criticism that Israel has not acted on a resolution passed by the council before Christmas demanding a big increase in aid deliveries to Gaza.