Syria

David Morris Excerpts

Monday 3rd September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

I hope that I have covered that in answer to previous questions. I made the very strongest possible representations at the Security Council last week, in bilateral meetings and in the Security Council itself. We will be doing this over the coming weeks through our embassies around the world and with our European Union partners—I will meet them all at the end of this week—and of course the Prime Minister and I will pursue this with all the nations of the world at the UN General Assembly later this month.

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

I should like to commend my right hon. Friend for the measures he has taken to make progress on this matter. A protest group called Together We Can – For Syria in my constituency has been writing repeatedly to the Foreign Office. I would like him to clarify what changes on the ground Russia would like to see before getting further involved?

[Mr Hague]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his remarks. It is my view that there would have to be changes on the ground for Russia to change its position. Russia itself has not spelt out such conditions or criteria. At the meeting in Geneva at the end of June Russia signed up to an agreed transition in Syria and the creation of a transitional Government, as we all did, in the hope that that would make any other measures unnecessary, but now we have to make sure that such a transitional Government is actually created. Russia has not spelled that out; I am simply giving the House my analysis.