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Lebanon and the Middle East

Thank you for that reminder, Mr. Weir. I am conscious of that fact and shall keep to the brief few minutes available. It is a pleasure to rejoin this debate, and I look forward to the contribution from the Front Bench. It is also a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for High Peak (Tom Levitt). It is right that we should debate the use of cluster bombs. I hope that he accepts that the issue is as hotly debated in Israel as elsewhere; in fact, there is a parliamentary inquiry into the conduct of the conflict in the summer, and we await the outcome of that. The fact that a democracy in the middle east can have such a public, open inquiry when the issues surrounding it are full of such anguish, which has been described this morning, is testament to the quality of that democracy, which we should and must support. The assassination of Pierre Gemayel on 21 November, only a week ago, has exacerbated the crisis in the region. It followed six resignations from the Lebanese Cabinet last month. If only one more Cabinet member goes, the Government will collapse and a new election will be forced. I compliment my hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton (Mr. Love) on the timeliness of his debate. He urged us not to jump to conclusions about who was involved in the assassination. Many in Lebanon believe that Syria was involved, although obviously it has denied all involvement. However, it is important to remember that it was the fifth political assassination since the killing of Prime Minister Hariri in February 2005. The House of Commons Library, helpful as always, has provided a briefing note, which points out with historical accuracy that it was suspicion of Syrian involvement in the assassination of Prime Minister Hariri that increased pressure on Syria and forced it to withdraw from the Lebanon, leading to the recent period, in the months up to the summer, when we were able to have a degree of optimism for the future of Lebanon as tourism and the economy improved. However, we could be genuinely optimistic about the situation only if we ignored two things: first, the stockpiling of weapons by Hezbollah in the south of Lebanon and, secondly, the assassinations of politicians in the country. The political unrest in the country follows Hezbollah’s demands, which we have been considering this morning, for a third of the Cabinet to be made up of either Hezbollah or Shi’a affiliates, which would give them the power of veto in the Government. The Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has threatened mass protests and efforts to topple the Government if his demands are not met. Hezbollah continues to gain strength and rearm in southern Lebanon. The UNFIL commander, General Alain Pellegrini, has admitted to being unable to stop Hezbollah smuggling arms from Iran and Syria. UN resolution 1701 demands the disarmament of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, but the new powers mandated to UNFIL fall short of allowing it to use force to obstruct rearmament. We have the prospect, the potential danger, of conflict between the Israeli defence forces and the international forces of UNFIL if the Israelis attempt to secure their border. Recently, an overflying Israeli intelligence plane caused real concern and the French issued a warning. My hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton is right: we should not conclude who was involved in the most recent event in Lebanon. However, there are certain truths that we can accept. We know that Hezbollah is funded by and its militia is trained and armed by Iran. If we conclude from the situation in Lebanon that the crisis has been brought about by foreign intervention—the presence of Israeli forces in the past and Syrian involvement—we must equally consider the involvement of Iran, how it is seeking to manipulate the situation and how it is using Hezbollah to attack the northern border of Israel. I join my hon. Friends in welcoming the Prime Minister’s initiative. I agree that it is vital that we seek to build alliances across what are at present deep and critical divides between countries in the region, and anything that our Government can do to support the initiative is welcome. However, I say to my hon. Friend the Minister that the murderers of Lebanese politicians must be brought to account. All of us who love democracy must not stand by when democratically elected representatives in another country are assassinated.