Iran-Israel Conflict

Chris Coghlan Excerpts

Monday 16th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

The phrase that I have used about no military endeavour being able to achieve this without diplomacy has been used by the US and by the Israelis themselves.

[Chris Coghlan (Dorking and Horley) (LD)]

While I deplore the alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza, that should not cloud our view of the Iranian regime. As a British diplomat covering Syria, I saw how the Iranian regime was directly complicit in the torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians. I was a British soldier in Iraq in 2020, and the British Lance Corporal Brodie Gillon was killed by the Iranians a few months before I arrived. There have been too many catastrophic British foreign policy decisions in the middle east this century, so I commend the Foreign Secretary for his commitment to a realist and hard-headed approach. Does he agree that the first question for any policy choice should be: where does it all end?

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful that the hon. Gentleman, though new to this House, brings so much experience. I agree with his sentiment.