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Proceeding contribution from John McDonnell (Labour) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 13 December 2011. It occurred during Legislative debate on Prevention of Nuclear Proliferation.


Prevention of Nuclear Proliferation

I would, but we are short of time, so if the hon. Gentleman does not mind, I will not. I am sure that he understands. All that evidence led to the conclusion by Mr Mohamed el-Baradei, the former head of the IAEA, that he had ““no confidence”” in the allegations based upon it, but it has convinced the new head of the IAEA, Mr Yukiya Amano. WikiLeaks has, unfortunately, exposed comments from the US on Mr Amano, however, whom it describes as"““solidly in the US court””" and ““ready for prime time””. So I begin to doubt the independence of his judgment on the matter. It seems that we are being drawn into an atmosphere of war, and sanctions lead to war. Recent research by Professor Robert Pape of the university of Chicago demonstrates that 95.7% of cases of sanctions since world war one have led to military conflict, but who suffers? I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Islington North that it is not the elite, but the poorest. The reaction is usually for the ruling elite to blame the ills of the country on foreign forces, and sometimes it even unites the country against a foreign foe, but the tragedy is that sanctions often motivate a regime to seek to protect itself by acquiring the very weapons that we seek to rid ourselves of. There has been military action on the ground already. We have evidence of that from various reports—not just the drone, but intelligence assets on the ground relating to assassinations. The chair of our own parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee could not rule out such assassinations having been undertaken by Israelis, and he confirmed that on occasions the US and Israeli Governments have given authority for assassinations. I just want to get on the record my fear that we have trodden this path before, and that after sanctions come the bombs, then invasion, then loss of life, destabilisation and a growth in terrorism, then usually the installation of a puppet regime and the privatisation and exploitation by western countries of the mineral and oil resources. I hope against hope that we are not embarking on that tonight with this statutory instrument, but I have this dreadful fear of ““Here we go again””.


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
537 c703 
Session
2010-12
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
Decommissioning Arms control Finance Nuclear weapons Nuclear power Proliferation Sequestration of assets Iran
Legislation
Financial Restrictions (Iran) Order 2011
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk