Humanitarian Aid: Tikrit

Lord Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Tuesday 10th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab)]

My Lords, in so far as Tikrit is a Sunni community and the Daesh is a Sunni movement persecuting its own Sunni community, and if we are engaged in providing assistance, can we use those routes for providing assistance to develop a new relationship with the Sunni leadership in Iraq, who very often have been ignored?

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, the noble Lord is right: it is basically a Sunni community. It was, of course, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein and therefore has a totemic significance as well. We are aware of that. The humanitarian aid that goes from this country is given on the basis of need; it is given without any consideration of which community or religion a person comes from. But we are seeking to ensure through Prime Minister Abadi—who, of course, is Shia—that there is a united Iraq at the end of all of this, encompassing all faiths.