Syria

Lord Campbell of Pittenweem Excerpts

Monday 6th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

I do not think that I shall get into party matters during this Government statement. We emphatically disagree with Russia, and we are appalled at the veto in the Security Council. None the less, Russia is a member of the Security Council and it has a veto. We will therefore continue to discuss the way forward with Russia, just as we will with all other nations.

[Sir Menzies Campbell (North East Fife) (LD)]

Is it not clear that the exercise of the veto by any permanent member of the Security Council always comes at a cost? The shameful events of last Saturday will be no exception to this principle. In this case, is not the immediate cost being paid in the broken bodies of children wrapped in burial sheets and the anguish of their parents? My right hon. Friend clearly needs no urging about the urgency with which he should fulfil the objectives he has properly set out, but may I say that he is most well placed when he takes the view that there should be the widest possible coalition of the willing throughout the world—as, indeed, the vote in the Security Council emphasised—so that what the United Nations was unable to do might be achieved on a much broader basis through the maintenance of pressure on Syria?

[Mr Hague]

I absolutely agree with my right hon. and learned Friend, as he could gather from my earlier replies. This is why the international coalition should include nations well beyond Europe and the Arab world. I discussed the matter this morning, for instance, with the Foreign Minister of Australia, which is keen to be a participant. Across the Commonwealth as well as across the Arab and European communities, there will be a demand to be involved in that wide coalition. We will pursue that very energetically in the hours and days ahead.