Middle East

Louise Ellman Excerpts

Monday 14th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

Of course there are many security threats to Israel, but the way for Israel to chart its way forward away from those threats is to seek urgently the resumption of the direct talks with the Palestinians and to find the two-state solution that would ensure that many of those threats fell away. As I say, it is important to be positive about the change and the prospects in Egypt. It is important for Israelis to be positive and welcoming about that as well, because expressing excessive fears about Islamisation in Egypt—I hope that they become excessive; of course, I cannot know what will happen—may become a partly self-fulfilling prophecy. So we should take a more positive attitude than that, and the way forward is the reinvigorating of the peace process.

[Mrs Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab/Co-op)]

Just over a week ago, a group of Egyptians blew up a pipeline taking gas to Israel and Jordan. Were the Israelis right to be concerned about that?

[Mr Hague]

Yes. We do not yet know what exactly happened in that incident, but it rightly caused concern in Israel and Jordan. I know from visiting Jordan last week that the extra energy costs resulting from the incident were several million pounds a day, in an economy that can ill afford it. That underlines the need for a rapid return to a state of affairs in Egypt that allows its economy to recover and provides stable security, which is why we have argued for an orderly transition and now the implementation of what the military council has pledged itself to. So, yes, people were right to be concerned about that, but the answer to that is stability and democracy in Egypt.