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Foreign Affairs and Defence

The Opposition should say what they think is the right thing to do, and not necessarily be governed by opinion poll. I will, of course, come to Afghanistan in the course of my remarks—the hon. Gentleman would be astonished if I did not—but I wish first to address some of the situations in Africa. We did discuss Zimbabwe yesterday, and we welcomed the ban on 11 further members of the regime—and called for its proper enforcement by EU nations this time. We hope, as do Ministers, that more African nations will join the leaders of Kenya and Botswana in saying unequivocally that Mugabe must go. The President of Botswana has called—as hon. Members have said—for a fuel blockade, which is a very difficult judgment to reach. I accept the Foreign Secretary's description of that as a matter of life or death. I suspect that were we in office we would come down on the other side of that judgment, because it is a matter of life or death either way for the people of Zimbabwe, but I understand how difficult it is to make that choice. It is also clear that if the responsibility to protect, to which UN members have signed up, means anything, the UN Security Council should authorise strong sanctions or direct intervention in Zimbabwe. The difficulty is—and this is perhaps the only respect in which I part company with my right hon. and learned Friend, who speaks with great authority and experience on these matters—that there is currently no authority from the UN or the African Union to take such action. I hope that the Government will find stronger support at the UN Security Council than they found earlier in the year, and when they again actively raise the issue of Zimbabwe, they will find that the views of some countries have changed. We continue to believe that it is vital to prepare for the day after Mugabe, with huge aid, security reform and a new and improved Administration, with an over-the-horizon force—supplied by African nations—ready to go in when that is possible and necessary. All those points remain valid, but it is the responsibility of African leaders and nations now to say that Mugabe must go. The need to take action on that is paramount.