Syria: Russian Redeployment and the Peace Process Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Mark Pritchard
Main Page: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)Department Debates - View all Mark Pritchard's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(8 years, 8 months ago)
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Mr Hammond
The humanitarian aid is there. It is ready to move; it is in trucks. The World Food Programme has the resource it needs. The food, the medical supplies and so on are ready to go in. The issue is simply access. Principally, that is to do with regime obstruction. In some places it has been overcome; in others it is still a problem. UN people are working day and night on the ground to try to resolve it, but it is a case of literally progressing through one checkpoint and then trying to negotiate the next.
Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)
Following on from the question by my hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon (Mr Djanogly), the Kremlin says that the Russian presence in Syria is to counter terrorism, although there are no terrorist groups with fighter jets. Is it not the case that if Russia is serious about de-escalating the situation in Syria and moving towards a peaceful and political solution, it will also withdraw its surface-to-air missiles—the S-400 system?
Mr Hammond
Our understanding is that the S-400 system was probably deployed to protect Russian installations and was part of the protective bubble that the Russians put around their installations in Syria—their air bases and naval port. We will obviously have to wait to see the extent, if any, of the withdrawal that has been announced and whether it includes those weapons.