Gaza: Peace Talks Debate
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Lord Dubs
Main Page: Lord Dubs (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Dubs's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(3 days, 10 hours ago)
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Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
The noble Lord is right. It is important that we acknowledge the role of all players who have been instrumental in facilitating negotiations and smoothing this along, including, as he says, the United States, Egypt and Qatar. Of course, we have hope, given recent announcements, but I would draw a strong distinction between hope and optimism. We need to be realistic and patient, but our hope remains, and I have more hope today than we perhaps did a week ago.
Lord Dubs (Lab)
Does my noble friend agree that there has also been an increase in violence in the West Bank? Will the Government confirm that they are totally opposed to any expansion of settlements in the West Bank no matter what the American Government decide?
Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
As we have discussed previously, the problem with settlements and some of the activity we have seen around them is that it makes the two-state solution more difficult to deliver in practical terms—so we do have concerns, as the noble Lord says.