Middle East

Lord Waldegrave of North Hill Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

As I said in my initial response, the Prime Minister has been absolutely correct in ensuring that we focus on international law and on our interests. We should not underestimate the threat of Iran—it is a serious threat to us. That is why the previous Government and this Government have put so much effort into ensuring that it does not get nuclear weapons. With our E3 partners, we have engaged in extensive negotiations in the lead-up to snapback, and Iran chose not to accept our demands; faced with Iran’s continuous nuclear escalation, we were compelled to trigger that snapback, and we ensured that we got decisive UN Security Council support for that. We are absolutely clear about the requirement to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons remains—it is a threat that is serious. We also need to understand its actions in the region, not only to do with its proxy facilities but even in what this terrible regime has been doing to its own population. We should be clear about the threat that Iran is to the whole of the world.

[Lord Waldegrave of North Hill (Con)]

Would the Minister accept that many of us applaud the caution of the Government in this situation? I was proud to visit, in a previous generation, the Armilla patrol, but the situation is entirely different from then. Forcing the Strait of Hormuz against organised opposition would be an extremely dangerous undertaking. If anybody wants to cast their minds back into history, they will see that we have a precedent for that from almost this month 110 years ago. Will the Minister accept that we should be very careful in engaging in military action to clear the Strait of Hormuz before there is an operative ceasefire of some kind?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

The Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister have been very clear that the most important outcome is a negotiated settlement and agreement to achieve the end of this war. The Strait of Hormuz presents us with a problem. We are in detailed negotiations with our allies because, as the noble Lord accepts, what we are facing now is very different from what we faced 10 or 20 years ago. Technology has changed. As the Foreign Secretary said in the other place, we have not just air drones but sea drones and other different things—it is not just about guns along the bank. It is important that we understand that. We are actively working with our allies to see how we can address this.

Either the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, or the noble Earl—by the way, I should have said happy birthday to him; dealing with this Statement at the end of the week is not a birthday occupation—referred to international law and the law of the sea. The law of navigation and trade is the number one priority for the UK and our ability to trade and be economically viable, so we are going to continue to work with our allies. The noble Lord is right that in the end we need a negotiated settlement.