Japan and the Middle East

Lord Hughes of Woodside Excerpts

Monday 14th March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Elystan-Morgan]

My Lords, is it not the case that—

[Lord Hughes of Woodside]

My Lords—

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

There are a lot of people trying to intervene. There is room provided that everyone is brief.

[Lord Hughes of Woodside]

My Lords, while I welcome the statement from the Arab League and do not in any sense diminish its importance, does the Leader of the House think that there is any real prospect of countries which are part of the Arab League and which have the military capacity taking part in the no-fly zone operation? Does he think that seeking such support would be a help or a hindrance to getting a resolution through the Security Council?

[Lord Strathclyde]

My Lords, there are members of the Arab League that would have the capability to involve themselves in policing a no-fly zone, but I sense that we are a long way from that at this stage. There is still a diplomatic process to be completed of resolutions in the United Nations, but there is certainly no bar to making the co-operation across nations and alliances as wide and as deep as possible.