Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 19th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Alistair Burt]

Together with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, I was at the Libya contact group meeting in Istanbul just last Friday. Post-conflict stabilisation and reconstruction is now a very significant element of the international community’s considerations of Libya and its contact with the national transitional council. We believe that the future for Libya without Gaddafi is clearly much better than its situation with him. Everything is working towards him leaving power so that the work of negotiation for a new Government in Libya, and the stabilisation work that is a very important part of what is being considered at the moment, can begin.

[Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab)]

10. What recent discussions he has had with the Libyan transitional national council.

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr William Hague)]

I met Mahmoud Jabril, head of the national transitional council’s executive committee, at the Libya contact group meeting in Istanbul on Friday, and spoke with him by phone on Tuesday. We discussed a wide range of issues, but with a particular focus on the national transitional council’s plans for Libya’s stabilisation post-Gaddafi.

[Mr Watts]

I thank the Secretary of State for that response. How sure is he that the regime that takes over from Gaddafi will be better than the one that exists now? What action would he take if Gaddafi was removed and a regime came in that was worse than the one that we have now?

[Mr Hague]

The hon. Gentleman has left the House trying to imagine a regime worse than the Gaddafi regime over the last 42 years. I suppose that it is theoretically possible, but on the basis of my visit to Benghazi and meeting the people there, who have an inspiring commitment to freedom and a better future for their country, I can tell him that huge numbers of Libyans are going through what they are going through now in order to have a dramatically better situation. The commitment to democratic principles of the leaders of the national transitional council is genuine. Their commitment to forming an interim government after the departure of Gaddafi, including technocratic members of the current regime, is also genuine. So when Gaddafi departs, there is every prospect of a better future for Libya.