Asked by: Lord Gold (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of Turkey's financial, military, and political ties with the proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas; and what plans they have to address concerns about a member of NATO financing Hamas.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The Government has proscribed Hamas as a terrorist organisation and condemns its unacceptable attacks against civilians. Turkey has not proscribed Hamas, which is a sovereign decision. The UK supports Turkish efforts to encourage Hamas and Israel to end the conflict in Gaza and is working with a range of international partners, including our North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) ally Turkey, to counter the threat of terrorism and secure a lasting peace in the Middle East.
Asked by: Lord Gold (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the potential impact on current negotiations with Iran of the report that Yukiya Amano, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has stated that agency inspectors are being denied access to nuclear plants in Iran.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
On 7 November 2014, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General issued his latest report on the status of Iran’s nuclear programme. We are grateful to the IAEA for continuing to verify the nuclear elements of the Joint Plan of Action (JPoA), and the confirmation that Iran continues to implement the JPoA. However, we remain extremely disappointed by the lack of genuine cooperation from Iran on ‘Possible Military Dimensions’ (PMD) to its nuclear programme as reported by the Director General, and continue to offer our full support to the IAEA in pursuing the possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear programme. Iran continues to refuse access to certain sites to which the IAEA has requested access under PMD. However, we are not aware of reports that Iran is denying the IAEA access to nuclear plants.
A comprehensive agreement remains the most effective way to ensure that Iran’s nuclear programme is purely peaceful, and all nuclear measures under such an agreement will need to be robustly verified by the IAEA.