Syria: anti-Government Forces
Debate between Khalid Mahmood and Lord Swire(11 years, 8 months ago)
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Mr Swire
Indeed. I have seen UNRWA’s work at close hand in the past, and a very excellent job it does.
I think that the United Kingdom has a good story to tell. Our total funding for Syria and the region now stands at £139.5 million, and will provide humanitarian aid such as food, medical care, blankets and clean drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people in Syria and, critically, in the region. That is something that I feel the House should applaud.
Mr Khalid Mahmood (Birmingham, Perry Barr) (Lab)
Is the Minister aware that a number of Syrian, Kurdish and Muslim extremists are travelling to Syria to join the rebellion and fight along with al-Qaeda? What steps is he taking to prevent that insurgency from extending to the United Kingdom?
Mr Swire
The sooner we can bring the situation in Syria to an end, the sooner we can reduce the need for any kind of people to seek to fight on one side or the other. The way in which to do that is to embolden the official opposition, which we are supporting. We hope that these new measures will go some way towards strengthening the opposition and allowing it to position itself as the Government in waiting.