Syria: De-escalation Zones

Tom Tugendhat Excerpts

Monday 26th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call Tom Tugendhat.

[Tom Tugendhat (Tonbridge and Malling) (Con)]

I was going to wait, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

That is very decent of the hon. Gentleman, but if he feels a question welling up in his breast, he should share it with the nation.

[Tom Tugendhat]

Many hon. Members wanted to ask questions early, so I was going to wait and allow them to do so.

[Mr Speaker]

We are saving the hon. Gentleman up for the edification of the House.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

Tom Tugendhat.

[Tom Tugendhat]

Thank you for your patience, Mr Speaker. I am extremely grateful.

I welcome my right hon. Friend’s response to the urgent question. May I share with him the disappointment that I am sure many Conservative Members feel as a war continues and Stop the War does not protest outside the Russian embassy, but stays silent about the brutality that we are seeing?

My right hon. Friend rightly said that Britain should be at the centre of this process. May I ask him what conversations he has had with Minister Zarif and Minister Lavrov over the last few days, given that Minister Lavrov was instrumental in first blocking and then delaying the UN process? May I also ask him whether it is true that both President Macron of France and Chancellor Merkel of Germany have spoken to President Putin of Russia? What contact have we had with Russia over the last few days?

[Boris Johnson]

I can certainly tell my hon. Friend that we are directing all our conversations and all our energies to getting the Russians to accept their responsibilities. I cannot go into the details of the contacts that we have had with them over the last few days, but suffice it to say that we believe that it is overwhelmingly in their interests to begin a political process. I feel that if they do not do that, they will be bogged down in this conflict for years, perhaps decades, to come. There is no military solution. There are 4 million people in Syria whom Assad does not control, and whom the Russians do not control either. We are therefore exerting all the influence we can to bring the process back to Geneva, where it belongs.