Libya

Lord Risby Excerpts

Friday 1st April 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Risby]

My Lords, first, I applaud my noble friend Lord Howell of Guildford for so characteristically and knowledgeably opening our proceedings and for, ever since the Libyan crisis broke, keeping your Lordships’ House so very well informed. We are very grateful to him.

The noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, and the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, and I frequently went to Egypt under the auspices of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy to engage with a whole spectrum of politicians, to meet people in civil society and academia, and specifically to promote the participation of women in the political life of the country. While we were there, we learnt of mistreatment by the police, the corruption, the alienation from politics of so many people and the unprecedented poverty, which were part of the cocktail of despair which led to the upsurge of so much activity as we saw unleashed.

The situation in Egypt is really widely shared elsewhere in the region. The economy has been growing well. There have been substantial tax reforms and economic liberalisation. But, simply put, no economic system could grow fast enough to give jobs to the fully 61 per cent of the population under the age of 30, which is the same figure for Libya. The so-called Arab spring is certainly about young people accessing the internet and wanting political change, but it is undoubtedly about the lack of economic opportunity for millions of young Arabs.

Nowhere is that more so than in Yemen, where 73 per cent of the population is under the age of 30. As I have seen for myself when visiting, it is a country divided by fundamental tribal and religious differences, it has a chronic shortage of water and is a shelter for al-Qaeda. It is a poor country that is having to deal with a continual influx of desperate Somalis fleeing the nightmare that is their homeland.

The issues in Libya have been well expressed today. There is the deliberate government policy of physically seeking to destroy political opposition. There are all the humanitarian consequences of that, which for us perhaps means a mass of people from north Africa seeking entry into Europe. Again, that is a human tragedy, but it impacts on the European political debate and European attitudes. The situations in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, Syria and others do not suggest clear endings and we will need to look at each country on a case-by-case basis.

In addition to the yearning for political change and economic opportunity, there remains one issue about which all Arabs, young and old, feel passionately: the Israel/Palestine conflict. We have a particular interest as violence and tension there invariably affect the attitudes and emotions of many British citizens. Ultimately, in a sense, in the Middle East, all roads lead to Jerusalem. I would have thought that this is precisely the time for Israel, in its own best interests, to think out of the box and counterintuitively and to send a different message to all those young Arabs who are so clearly expressing themselves politically and to road-test a more radical approach in its relationships with its near neighbours.

This brings me to Syria, where there are real concerns about civil and political rights and police activity. I declare an interest as a director of the British Syrian Society. The geopolitical location of Syria has always been pivotal in the region. Whatever political developments take place there in the future, it is worth reminding ourselves that Israel, a vibrant democracy, illegally occupies a substantial chunk of Syrian territory. There is no religious or strategic reason for this. Syria has sought a dialogue with Israel, brokered by Turkey. It deploys Hezbollah to punish Israel for this occupation, hence the link to Iran.

What is happening in the Middle East is a moment to be seized upon. It is spontaneous and has little to do with Iranian theocracy or Osama bin Laden. Dramatic change offers a potential opportunity to resolve a problem at the heart of the region. In this unfolding drama, we are seeing the emergence of Turkey, our great friend, as a wise and steady regional influence; we see yet again how vulnerable we are in respect of energy security; and we see the United States, fiscally and militarily overstretched, drawing back as the American public demands. What we cannot escape from is that what is happening in the Middle East is happening in our own backyard, and whatever emerges in the region will impact on us, whether we like it or not.