Lebanon: Israel Defense Forces Operations

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Monday 8th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Baroness Chapman of Darlington) (Lab)]

My Lords, of course I can assure noble Lords that Israel has the right to defend itself. We have said so consistently. We are extremely disturbed—noble Lords will have noticed this in the language we have used in recent days—about the actions taken in Lebanon. We completely understand the need to deal with Hezbollah, and we think that that is best done through the Government of Lebanon. It is really difficult to understand how the actions in recent days would bring about an end to Hezbollah. The noble Lord’s Government were in place for 14 years and had the opportunity to legislate to deal with the issue of the IRGC. This Government have committed to doing so, and we will as soon as we can.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, I remind the House of my frequent visits to Lebanon over the last number of years, delivering a project supporting women to stand for municipal and parliamentary elections in the very areas where they have been under threat from Hezbollah over many years, so I have no sympathy with Hezbollah whatever. But one of the consequences of these yellow lines, if they are enforced, is the risk that Hezbollah will become active in areas of Lebanon other than where they are at the moment. My question to the Minister specifically concerns the areas being depopulated. The UK has over the last number of years has spent more than £117 million supporting the Lebanese armed forces’ capacity in the very areas the IDF now considers to be yellow zones. What is the current UK support for the Lebanese armed forces, and will we have any ongoing relationship in these areas?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

First, I commend the noble Lord’s work with women and girls in Lebanon. It is vital that we continue this work, and two weeks ago I was able to meet the Lebanese Minister for social affairs, who is an outstanding woman leader in Lebanon. Our support for the Lebanese army continues, and it is the right way to support Lebanon in defeating Hezbollah, a proscribed organisation. We support the aim of getting rid of Hezbollah, but it has to be done by strengthening the state and the Government of Lebanon.