Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alistair Burt and Nadhim Zahawi

Tuesday 17th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for the Middle East (Alistair Burt)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that matter of real seriousness in Egypt. I met leaders of the Coptic Church just last week with the support of His Grace Bishop Angaelos, and I am going to the Coptic service later today to express further solidarity. We raise these matters directly with the Egyptian Government, who view these terrorist attacks with the same degree of horror as we do, and who are doing all in their power to stop them. We will continue to urge just that.

[Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)]

I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Will the Foreign Secretary join me in thanking Ambassador Frank Baker for all his tireless work in Iraq? He has worked with the Foreign Secretary, Secretary Tillerson and the Iraqi Prime Minister to put together a deal that would have avoided the catastrophic situation that now plagues the country between the Kurds and Baghdad. Will the Foreign Secretary urge all sides to come back together around the negotiating table on that framework and negotiate a deal?

Israel and Palestinian Talks

Debate between Alistair Burt and Nadhim Zahawi

Wednesday 5th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for the Middle East (Alistair Burt)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Israel and Palestinian talks.

Looking around the Chamber, I am conscious that, first, a great many colleagues want to speak in the debate, and, secondly, there is a great deal of knowledge about this subject in the House. Accordingly, I do not intend to speak for long at this stage, on the basis that that will give me more time at the end of the debate in which to respond to some of the questions that are bound to be asked.

Having knocked around this issue for about 30 years—as some other Members in the Chamber have done—I know that many aspects of it are well known to us, and that restating them would probably be less effective than dealing with questions and looking at current issues, which is what I intend to do. I hope that the House will forgive me if I do not cover everything in my opening speech. No offence is intended, but I shall have a little more time to deal with the major questions when I respond to the debate.

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to discuss this important issue. A just and lasting settlement between Israelis and Palestinians that resolves the elements of conflict between them and delivers peace for all their peoples is long overdue and desired by friends of both all over the world. A lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians will only come about through a two-state solution negotiated between the parties, and that is the United Kingdom’s position.

[Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)]

I welcome my right hon. Friend to his rightful place on the Front Bench. Does he agree that one of the tragedies of this conflict is that for many years both sides have seemed to know what a deal looks like but, sadly, have never got there? One of the views in the middle east region is that that is in part because Hamas can never agree with Abu Mazen. Indeed, some will say that Hamas does not want a peace deal because it does not suit their interests.

[Alistair Burt]

There are many blockages on the way to peace, and a number of them will come up during the course of this debate. Hamas’s inability to accept the existence of the state of Israel is plainly one of them, and there are plenty more. As my hon. Friend said, it is a long-standing tragedy that the broad outlines of what many of us consider to be a deal are available and known, but the steps needed to convert that into action have not yet been taken.

Aleppo and Syria

Debate between Alistair Burt and Nadhim Zahawi

Tuesday 11th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Alistair Burt]

There may be international mechanisms that involve talk, but perhaps there are other things that we can do, and I think that that will be the mood of the House.

A little bit of history will provide a pointer forward; we need not review it all. Assad knew exactly what he was doing when the revolt started in 2011. Syria was not beset by radical Islam, but he released prisoners from his prisons to join radical Islamic bands because he wanted to create the narrative of his providing stability against terrorism. The narrative has succeeded. It gave him the excuse to attack his own people. That reached a nadir in 2013, with chemical weapons attack on his people. That was a fundamental point. I am not going to rehearse what was said in the House—there are reasons for colleagues to make the decisions that they did—but by stepping back at that moment, the moment not to destroy Assad but to get him back to the negotiating table by convincing him that something would stand in his way was lost.

[Nadhim Zahawi]

Inaction has consequences, and the consequences of inaction in 2013 are seen in Aleppo today.

[Alistair Burt]

They are; we learned that intervention has consequences, but so does non-intervention. We talk about non-intervention, but Syria has had intervention from Russia, from Hezbollah and from the Iranians. I remember briefings in the House, talking to colleagues and saying that, if the ultimate answer to Syria is a victory for Assad, for Russia, for Iran and for Hezbollah, and if we think that that will be in the United Kingdom’s best interests, I think we ought to think again. So we move on, and it is all very well to hear the history.

The involvement of Russia, which the hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury bravely mentioned, is a crucial part. Russia needs to understand that savagery stokes terrorism; it does not end it. Russia is rightly concerned about the possibility of radicalism in Chechnya and all that, but its efforts to deal with it are failing. Part of this discussion is being very clear that what is happening and what Russia is doing will fuel the terrorism of the future and will do nothing to prevent it.

Contaminated Blood

Debate between Alistair Burt and Nadhim Zahawi

Thursday 15th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Alistair Burt]

My right hon. Friend has been a doughty campaigner on this issue, and I have been grateful to her for her support. Let me put some flesh on what she has just said and on those figures. I will start with Hayden. His wife wrote to a friend of mine and said:

“I would dearly like to see an end to the campaigning and put this issue to bed. There needs to be an apology, there needs to be a big overhaul of the various Trusts… definitely not to make you feel as though you are going ‘cap in hand’ to them. That’s disgraceful. I want to go to Hayden’s grave and say once and for all ‘it’s sorted.’ Then I will know he is resting in peace.”

[Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)]

On the point about the support mechanism, does my right hon. Friend agree that it is unacceptable that the very organisations that were set up to support individuals, such as the MacFarlane Trust, do not treat beneficiaries equitably? My constituent who went to the trust and questioned the response times was branded a troublemaker and her applications for grants were either delayed or, in some cases, frustrated completely. That is the reality on the ground. Will he say something about some of those organisations?

[Alistair Burt]

My hon. Friend is right that many beneficiaries have expressed deep concern about the workings of the trust. The all-party group report that came out yesterday will be addressed by other colleagues. On the MacFarlane Trust in particular he should know that I share his concerns. I do not believe that that trust is salvageable or saveable, and I will speak about that later.

Middle East and North Africa

Debate between Alistair Burt and Nadhim Zahawi

Thursday 17th July 2014 Westminster Hall

[Alistair Burt]

One of the first things I learned was how different each state was from the other. It is a bit like wondering why Manchester United are a success and Leeds United are not. Things are definitely different in each of the states. Tunisia, for example, had a broad background in education; the former leader put a lot of time and effort into the education of his country. That is quite a contrast with Libya, for example, where there was effectively no state whatever, with or without Gaddafi. Each state was in a very different place and was different economically, and, frankly, peoples are different from one another. It is best to consider the Arab spring as a collection of different states with similar problems but different identities, and to work individually in each. That has been the success of the Arab Partnership.

Looking beyond north Africa but staying with the prosperity agenda for a moment, I also commend to the new Minister a continuance of the Gulf initiative. The incoming Government in 2010 took the view that an enhanced relationship with our friends in the Gulf would be of benefit. Our relationships, whether on defence, counter-terrorism, energy security or trade and investment, are crucial in that region. Contact and relationships have been deliberately improved and increased, mostly through a huge number of visits. Ministers and others have made 260 individual visits to the region since 2010, including some extremely high-level visits. The region is home to 27% of the world’s sovereign wealth, and our export trade there is larger than to India, Russia and Mexico combined.

That initiative is extremely important. We have a great deal in common with these states, and being adventurous in our relationship, not just on prosperity but on the other things that we hold in common, will be an important sign of the future. I say that because, given approaching events such as the election and, if the Conservative party wins the election, a referendum on Europe in 2017, there may be a slight risk that the FCO’s orientation moves more towards Europe than other parts of the world. Whatever the interests of the Foreign Secretary may be—his great interest in the Gulf was shown in his role in defence—I say to my hon. Friend the Minister that he has a really important role to play in ensuring that the work that has been done on the middle east and the Gulf does not slip away because of other, more immediate political pressures affecting the Foreign Office. Continuing the Gulf initiative would be a good place to start.

[Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)]

I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

Regarding not taking our eye off the ball in the middle east and the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates has certainly made great strides in working with the Kurdistan Regional Government; and our Government issued the first formal invitation to the KRG’s Prime Minister a month ago, and that relationship is developing. However, there are issues and I hope my right hon. Friend will address some of them. The Kurds now find themselves with a very long border with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. They are also cut off from Baghdad because their budget has not been delivered since March. And of course, they have a strong bilateral relationship with Turkey and are attempting to sell their oil through the pipeline to Ceyhan and to Turkey, but that in itself has come up against a number of challenges. I suspect that our Government will remain neutral on this matter, but can he address some of those issues—

[Philip Davies (in the Chair)]

Order. Interventions should certainly be shorter than that one.