Middle East and North Africa

Lord Teverson Excerpts

Wednesday 7th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

It is right that the people of Iran should be free to live their lives as they wish and to have a Government who reflect their wishes, and that women, in particular, in Iran should be free to live and to conduct their lives in the way that they want. There is no ambiguity about the UK Government’s position on any of these things. We support the people of Iran in their endeavours to bring about the open, free society that we would all wish to see.

[Lord Teverson (LD)]

My Lords, we primarily think about Russian aggression in Ukraine, quite rightly, but if we think of north Africa, despite the death of the Wagner Group, the so-called Russian Africa Corps is still very active in the Sahel and Libya and supports rather ugly regimes. It is there capturing important resources for Russia, and it fights in a way that is contrary to the rules of war and human rights. This seems to me to be rather understated and not seen enough, but it is quite dangerous to us and to Europe. I wonder how the Foreign Office see this and how its threats can be contained.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

The noble Lord is absolutely right. One of the reasons that I feel quite so strongly that the UK needs to be outward-facing and strong diplomatically, defensively and in our development work is that if we neglect areas of the world, such as the Sahel, then the conditions allowed to grow in Africa, and in that region especially, will make it a breeding ground for extremism, dangerous Islamism, and activities of states that do not wish us any good and certainly do not wish the people of the Sahel any good either. It is vital that the UK maintains its leadership role globally in fighting these things. We work as closely as we ever have with our allies and partners, especially in places where it is the most difficult, such as those that he describes.