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Written Question
BBC World Service: Russian Language
Thursday 17th March 2022

Asked by: Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to make an immediate one-off grant in aid to the BBC World Service to enable it to increase its Russian services (1) online, and (2) over the air.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The FCDO strongly values the work of the BBC World Service and its independent and impartial broadcasting. FCDO officials are working closely with the BBC to consider how best to support BBC services to the Russian people.


Speech in Lords Chamber - Wed 07 Jul 2021
Palestine

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Written Question
Iran: Journalism
Wednesday 30th June 2021

Asked by: Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the treatment of BBC World Service journalists working for the Persian language service by the authorities in Iran; and what representations they have made to the government of Iran about the harassment of journalists in that country.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

We condemn the persecution of current and former BBC Persian employees and their family members, and the many individuals who have had their assets frozen or are banned from leaving Iran. We regularly raise this issue of harassment directly with the Iranian government, as well as in multilateral fora. At the UN Third Committee in October 2020 we urged Iran to cease their harassment of journalists and media organisations, and at the Human Rights Council in March 2021 we made it clear to Iran that their repeated violations of human rights are unacceptable. We reiterated our concerns on 24 June 2021 at the BBC Persian event, attended by multiple supporters of media freedom, which took place alongside the Human Rights Council. These actions by the Iranian authorities contravene multiple international human rights obligations, and we will continue to call them out for as long as they commit them.


Speech in Lords Chamber - Tue 09 Mar 2021
Tigray Conflict: Axum

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Written Question
Iran: Arms Trade
Wednesday 27th May 2020

Asked by: Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risks associated with the Iranian trade in arms following the expiration of the UN Security Council arms embargo on Iran in October.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK remains committed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), a reciprocal deal that lifts sanctions in exchange for tough nuclear limits. Iran has broken the nuclear limits in the JCPoA and we are working to bring Iran back into compliance through the deal's Dispute Resolution Mechanism.

UNSCR 2231, which underpins the JCPoA, includes a number of clauses designed to allow sanctions to expire on fixed dates: the UN conventional arms embargo is due to expire in October 2020. We have repeatedly set out concerns about Iranian destabilising behaviour, including proliferation to non-state actors. We are consulting partners on the broader implications of the UN arms embargo expiry and encourage all states to implement national export control best practice.

As part of those consultations, we are taking into account sanctions regimes that will remain in place after the arms embargo expires, such as UNSCRs 1540, 1701 and 2216, which prohibit the proliferation of weapons to Lebanese Hizballah and the Houthis. The EU arms embargo and UN ballistic missile restrictions on Iran will also remain in place until 2023. Separate to sanctions in place under the JCPoA, there is an EU Iran human rights sanctions regime. It places trade restrictions on specified goods and technology which may be used to repress the civilian population of Iran and on specified goods and technology which may be used for interception and monitoring services in Iran. These EU trade restrictions do not have an expiry date.


Speech in Lords Chamber - Tue 12 Jun 2018
BBC Persian Staff

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Speech in Lords Chamber - Tue 12 Jun 2018
BBC Persian Staff

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Speech in Lords Chamber - Thu 13 Oct 2016
Israel and Palestine

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Speech in Lords Chamber - Tue 23 Feb 2016
Middle East

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Speech in Lords Chamber - Tue 23 Feb 2016
Middle East

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View all Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Middle East