British foreign minister David Lammy and JD Vance talked about Gaza during a meeting on Friday as the U.S. vice president kicked off his holiday in the United Kingdom.
Lammy hosted Vance at his country retreat in Chevening in Kent, southeast of London, where the pair went fishing in a carp pond before getting down to business.
Vance told reporters the United States had “no plans” to follow Britain by recognising a Palestinian state.
“I don’t know what it would mean to really recognise a Palestinian state, given the lack of functional government there,” Vance said.
He added that he expected President Donald Trump to “talk at some point to the media about his response” to Israel’s plan to “take military control” of the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
“Our goals are very clear. We want to make it so that Hamas can’t attack innocent people. We want to solve humanitarian problems in Gaza,” Vance said.
The two men also discussed the war in Ukraine ahead of a possible summit next week between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as the U.S. president tries to end the more than three-year-long conflict.
