\n<\/p>\n
John Swinney has pledged to raise \u201cthe unimaginable suffering we are witnessing in Gaza\u201d when he meets Donald Trump over the weekend.<\/p>\n
The leader of the Scottish National party described the president\u2019s four-day trip as \u201ca landmark moment\u201d in the relationship between Scotland and the US.<\/p>\n
Ahead of Trump\u2019s arrival in Scotland on Friday afternoon, Swinney said: \u201cAs we welcome the president of the United States, Scotland will be showcased on the world stage. This provides Scotland with a platform to make its voice heard on the issues that matter, including war and peace, justice and democracy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs first minister it is my responsibility to advance our interests, raise global and humanitarian issues of significant importance, including the unimaginable suffering we are witnessing in Gaza, and ensure Scotland\u2019s voice is heard at the highest levels of government across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swinney is under increasing pressure from within his party to take a strong position on the crisis in Gaza.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday the former first minister Humza Yousaf and his wife, Nadia El-Nakla, shared on social media a plea to all governments to \u201cforce Israel to open the borders and allow aid to flow in\u201d. They said El-Nakla\u2019s cousin Sally and her four children were \u201cbeing starved by Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMillions in Gaza are being deliberately starved while Israel withholds food mere kilometres away. Words are not enough,\u201d the couple posted.<\/p>\n
El-Nakla, who is the convener of the SNP Friends of Palestine group, later told the Times that Swinney\u2019s meeting with Trump represented \u201ca critical opportunity to raise, directly and unequivocally, the ongoing genocide in Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cTime is not on the side of the people there. As I speak, my family \u2013 like millions of others \u2013 is starving. The first minister must demand that Trump use his influence to compel Israel to end the starvation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swinney said the global attention the visit would receive gave Scotland an opportunity to promote its tourism sector and investment potential.<\/p>\n
He also expressed confidence that those demonstrating against Trump\u2019s visit would \u201cdo Scotland proud\u201d and conduct themselves peacefully and lawfully. Gatherings are planned by the Stop Trump Coalition in Aberdeen and Edinburgh on Saturday, with protests also expected closer to Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie in Aberdeenshire. Road diversion and security restrictions are already being put in place.<\/p>\n
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Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The Scottish Police Federation, which represents the rank and file, has warned the scale of the operation will stretch resources and could double the time taken for a police officer to attend an incident elsewhere.<\/p>\n Trump is expected to stay at his Turnberry resort over the weekend and meet Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, there on Monday before travelling to his resort in Aberdeenshire where he will celebrate the opening of a golf course dedicated to his mother.<\/p>\n Although this is a private visit, Trump and Starmer are expected to participate in a press conference with White House and Westminster media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John Swinney has pledged to raise \u201cthe unimaginable suffering we are witnessing in Gaza\u201d when he meets Donald Trump over the weekend. The leader of the Scottish National party described the president\u2019s four-day trip as \u201ca landmark moment\u201d in the relationship between Scotland and the US. Ahead of Trump\u2019s arrival in Scotland on Friday afternoon,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[5761,262,124,183,5764,5763,5760,81,5762],"class_list":{"0":"post-12194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-gazas","9":"tag-john","10":"tag-politics","11":"tag-raise","12":"tag-scottish","13":"tag-suffering","14":"tag-swinney","15":"tag-trump","16":"tag-unimaginable"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}