In a rare di­ver­gence with­in the Gov­ern­ment’s ranks, a sit­ting sen­a­tor has pub­licly dis­tanced him­self from the Prime Min­is­ter’s po­si­tion on the es­ca­lat­ing con­flict in the Mid­dle East.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar en­dorsed the US-Is­raeli strikes against Iran over the week­end, a move that has trig­gered re­newed fight­ing across the re­gion and drawn mixed re­ac­tions at home.

But Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor David Nakhid has re­ject­ed what he de­scribed as the ac­tions of the “Zion­ist regime,” mark­ing an un­usu­al break in tone from with­in the ad­min­is­tra­tion.