Syria

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Tuesday 12th January 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, the noble Lord is right to point clearly to the value of all our ambassadors and those who work with them around the world. At this point, it is important that we see Assad’s regime take seriously the peace negotiations that are just within grasp. If we are able to see that he comes constructively to those negotiations to achieve the transition, I feel that we would look very positively at how we might engage further. We need to see how Assad reacts to the peace process first.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon (LD)]

My Lords—

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[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, the noble Lord is right to point to the appalling position for those who find themselves being starved out by Assad. Of course, some areas are under siege by Daesh and some by opposition groups, but mostly by Assad and Daesh. For the RAF to operate in the area of Madaya would have caused great—perhaps I may say—peril, in security terms. The right way to go forward is for Assad to grant the applications by the UN to have safe progress through. He has agreed so far only to 10% of those requests.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea]

My Lords, the Government’s initiative on convening and hosting the pledging conference is most welcome but first there has to be a settlement. Reverting to the Question posed by my noble friend Lord Soley, does the Minister agree that the Russian intervention has bolstered the position and strength of President Assad and can only complicate the search for a settlement? Does Russia recognise the effect of its intervention?

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

The danger is that Russia’s action may well have strengthened Assad’s hand and makes it more difficult, perhaps, for Assad to see the benefit of a peace process. That is why I call on Russia to use its levers of influence with Assad to make sure that he takes the transition process seriously and comes to the table on the peace negotiations. I believe that the Syria crisis conference can go ahead even before that peace has been achieved. It can show the way that we can achieve stabilisation in Syria in the future.