Queen’s Speech

Lord Williams of Baglan Excerpts

Thursday 17th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Williams of Baglan]

My Lords, I shall confine my remarks to the Middle East, a region where for the past five years I have worked for the United Nations and Her Majesty’s Government.

As the noble Lords, Lord Howell and Lord Wood, and others have remarked today, the crisis in Syria shows no sign of abating. The UN mission led by Kofi Annan, for whom I have great respect, not least because he was my former boss, is clearly in trouble. The number of monitors is still barely above that of the much maligned Arab League mission and, after some early decline, the level of violence is on the rise again. More importantly, the 10 April deadline for removing heavy weaponry and troops from residential areas in their entirety has clearly passed and not been met. Yesterday, President Bashar al-Assad gave an interview to Russian television and showed no sign of compromise. There is no sign that he will accept the political accommodation necessary and implicit in the Annan plan. Having met the President many times, I regret to say that I do not believe that accommodation is in his DNA.

It is of deep concern that the crisis in Syria is already migrating to neighbouring Lebanon—a dangerously fractious country at the best of times. Some 10 people have died in the northern city of Tripoli in the past few days in clashes between the minority Alawite and majority Sunni communities. The leader of the Alawite community, Rifaat Eid, one of the less attractive Lebanese politicians of my acquaintance, is quoted in the Lebanese press this morning as saying that,

“calm in Lebanon can only be restored through the intervention of an Arab army … No one is capable of doing”,

this “except the Syrian army”. One of the greatest achievements of the UN was the 2005 withdrawal of that army after a 30-year presence. I regret that it is again time to look at other diplomatic options. I hope that this can be done at the Chicago NATO summit and the Camp David summit next week. Above all, Russia and China need to be cautioned that their continuing support for the Assad regime is as useless and short-lived as the support that they rendered to President Milosevic of Serbia in the late 1990s.

I was pleased that the Prime Minister, Mr Cameron, recently received the beleaguered Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, who needs our strong support in these difficult days. We also need, with our partners, to make it absolutely clear that the international community will not accept any Syrian interference let alone intervention in Lebanon. As the trial of General Ratko Mladic has just started in the Hague and that of Charles Taylor is just ending, we need also to remember our commitments with regard to the established international norm of the responsibility to protect.

It is more than 30 years since the Israeli/Egyptian peace treaty of 1979, 10 years since the creation of the quartet which brings together the US, EU, Russia and UN and almost five years since the former Prime Minister, Mr Blair, assumed the post of quartet envoy. It is difficult to imagine a more powerful body on paper than the quartet but, having sat through many quartet meetings, I can think of no time in the past 20 years when the situation was more difficult if not bleak. It was not always thus. I take this opportunity to regret the withdrawal from politics of former Israeli Foreign Minister and Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, who tried under the last Government to advance the cause of peace. Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu surprised his own people with a political coup of great consequence in forming a coalition with the Kadima party now led by Shaul Mofaz. This gives Mr Netanyahu unparalleled political strength that no Labor Administration has had not for years but for decades. We must all hope that he uses this strength to accept and advance the two-state peace process.

The noble Baroness, Lady Blackstone, spoke eloquently earlier of the conditions of the Palestinian people— conditions I can confirm, having lived and worked there. I also believe that peace is vital for Israel itself. The progress of the Arab spring has highlighted Israel’s isolation in the Middle East. Governments once close to it, such as the Egyptian Government of President Mubarak, have toppled. Few Arab Governments now can speak openly in favour of Israel. It is time to see the peace process between Israel and Palestine advance again.