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Libya and the Middle East

Secondary information

Type

Parliamentary proceeding

Reference

524 c643-63 

Session

2010-12

Department

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons chamber

Proceeding contributions

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c643-5 (Link to this contribution) With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to update the House on developments in Libya and the middl...

Douglas Alexander | 524 c645-7 (Link to this contribution) I thank the right hon. Gentleman for giving me advance sight of his statement today. I am grateful t...

Show all contributions (101)

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c647-8 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for much of what he said. He pays tribute to the bravery o...

Malcolm Rifkind | 524 c648-9 (Link to this contribution) Having as Defence Secretary helped to enforce the no-fly zone on Iraq to protect the Shia and the Ku...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c649 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. and learned Friend is correct that all the contacts we have had with opposition forces...

Jack Straw | 524 c649 (Link to this contribution) In my experience of operations such as the one at the weekend, there was always an impressive level ...

Lord Soames of Fletching | 524 c651 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that if the British Government and our partners are to be able to ta...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c650 (Link to this contribution) Yes, the right hon. Gentleman makes a very important point. In all the countries witnessing great ch...

Speaker | 524 c650 (Link to this contribution) Order. More than 50 right hon. and hon. Members are still seeking to catch my eye. If I am to have a...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c649-50 (Link to this contribution) As I said, the United Kingdom, having led the way in so many of the ways I have described at the Sec...

Bob Ainsworth | 524 c650 (Link to this contribution) Will the Foreign Secretary do nothing more to give the impression to the British public that what is...

Denis MacShane | 524 c650-1 (Link to this contribution) Since this crisis started, I have been reading The New York Times and European papers, and watching ...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c651 (Link to this contribution) As I have said, I take full ministerial responsibility, as Ministers do. I believe very strongly in ...

Richard Ottaway | 524 c650 (Link to this contribution) Further to the point made by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kensington (Sir Malcolm...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c650 (Link to this contribution) Yes, my hon. Friend is right. That is one of the reasons why I said in answer to my right hon. and l...

Lord Campbell of Pittenweem | 524 c649 (Link to this contribution) There is much in the Foreign Secretary's statement to be welcomed, but I regret what I am about to s...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c651 (Link to this contribution) As I explained earlier, in answer to the right hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (Mr Al...

Lord Redwood | 524 c651 (Link to this contribution) Before considering any military intervention, will the Foreign Secretary assure the House that he is...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c651 (Link to this contribution) Direct intervention in these situations is, of course, a momentous thing that must be considered car...

Angus Robertson | 524 c651-2 (Link to this contribution) The latest report of the UN Refugee Agency says that 170,000 people have fled to neighbouring countr...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c652 (Link to this contribution) It is probably beyond the scope of this statement to go into the last point that the hon. Gentleman ...

Margot James | 524 c652 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that strong civil societies with democratic freedoms will come about...

Tony Lloyd | 524 c652 (Link to this contribution) The Foreign Secretary does not need me to tell him that when we engage in the kind of operations tha...

Ben Bradshaw | 524 c651 (Link to this contribution) If the object of the mission was to make contact with the leaders of free Libya, why did those invol...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c651 (Link to this contribution) Yes, absolutely—I certainly give that assurance.

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c655 (Link to this contribution) As I have explained, the missionaries were to make contact with opposition groups in Libya in order ...

Duncan Hames | 524 c655 (Link to this contribution) I wonder whether the Foreign Secretary could elaborate on that point. I am keen to know what direct ...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c655-6 (Link to this contribution) The diplomatic team that was there at the weekend did have a meeting with him, and we have had a ran...

Jeremy Corbyn | 524 c656 (Link to this contribution) The Foreign Secretary obviously has a huge area of responsibility, but I am very surprised that in h...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c656 (Link to this contribution) It is true, of course, that it would be possible to make a much longer statement about the situation...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c656 (Link to this contribution) It is not true that such facilities are necessary to implement a no-fly zone, because, in the case o...

Julian Lewis | 524 c656 (Link to this contribution) Do events in Libya and the middle east carry any lessons at all for the Government, given the talk a...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c656 (Link to this contribution) We have discussions with our partners in NATO and in the European Union, and indeed more broadly in ...

Sandra Osborne | 524 c656 (Link to this contribution) In acknowledging the difficulty of deciding how best to protect the Libyan people, I wonder what dis...

Andrew Murrison | 524 c656-7 (Link to this contribution) If the European External Action Service has a point, it is surely to engage in a timely fashion in i...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c657 (Link to this contribution) Baroness Ashton has recently visited a number of states in the region, including Egypt and Tunisia. ...

Fiona O'Donnell | 524 c657 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State spoke earlier about the plight of refugees. Up until the middle of last week,...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c657 (Link to this contribution) Yes, I entirely take my hon. Friend's word of caution; he is quite right to point that out. If we ca...

Gerry Sutcliffe | 524 c657-8 (Link to this contribution) It is good that the Foreign Secretary is admitting that the mission failed, and of course it must be...

Julian Brazier | 524 c657 (Link to this contribution) May I congratulate the Government and the armed forces on the successful evacuation of thousands of ...

Keith Vaz | 524 c658 (Link to this contribution) The Foreign Secretary has announced a change in travel advice for Yemen. Last week, the Secretary of...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c658 (Link to this contribution) I differ a little from my hon. Friend on that point. When we had to evacuate British nationals from ...

John Baron | 524 c658 (Link to this contribution) Apart from the irony of sending a British warship named after a pork sausage to rescue Brits from a ...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c658 (Link to this contribution) Of course, there are many telephone conversations going on. I myself speak to people on both sides o...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c652 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman points to an important fact. There are risks involved in many of the things that ...

Bob Stewart | 524 c652 (Link to this contribution) I speak as someone who has operated underneath a rather ineffective no-fly zone. Will my right hon. ...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c653 (Link to this contribution) For a no-fly zone to be implemented, it would clearly have to be effective, as well as to have the d...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c653 (Link to this contribution) We will not take too many lectures from the Opposition on the issue of selling things to the Gaddafi...

David Winnick | 524 c653 (Link to this contribution) Up to about a fortnight ago, we were busy selling arms to Gaddafi's bloodstained regime. Does the Fo...

Robert Halfon | 524 c654 (Link to this contribution) Following the scandal of the financial links between Libya and the London School of Economics and ot...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c653 (Link to this contribution) There is a range of options to be considered, and the hon. Lady draws attention to how many differen...

Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston | 524 c653 (Link to this contribution) It is useful to follow the previous question, because my question is about hitherto unsuccessful no-...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c653 (Link to this contribution) Yes, I take the point that my hon. Friend makes and I am grateful for his support for the position t...

Bernard Jenkin | 524 c653 (Link to this contribution) May I urge my right hon. Friend to take credit for the operations that go right, as well as responsi...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c654 (Link to this contribution) We will continue to provide support as necessary. All accidents in these situations, and certainly d...

Edward Leigh | 524 c654 (Link to this contribution) Realistically, given our resources, or lack thereof, surely there is no way we can or should take th...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c654 (Link to this contribution) I am sure that there will be lessons to be learned from that. We are a little preoccupied with what ...

Rushanara Ali | 524 c654 (Link to this contribution) In the light of the tragic deaths of three Bangladeshi nationals during a repatriation mission from ...

Barry Gardiner | 524 c655 (Link to this contribution) Who, if anyone, did the diplomatic mission believe it had arranged to see, what did it think was the...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c655 (Link to this contribution) Yes, we continue to look at other options on top of the asset freeze and the measures we have alread...

Rory Stewart | 524 c655 (Link to this contribution) There are many non-violent options that have not yet been explored. May I please encourage my right ...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c654-5 (Link to this contribution) If it is a protracted conflict that goes on for some time, it will throw up many challenges in addit...

Frank Roy | 524 c654 (Link to this contribution) Two weeks ago, we witnessed the debacle of the Foreign Office trying to arrange a Tripoli airport re...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c654 (Link to this contribution) As I have said, what are not being actively introduced at the moment, but for which we want to do th...

Speaker | 524 c661 (Link to this contribution) Order. One answer will suffice.

Oliver Colvile | 524 c661 (Link to this contribution) On that note, will my right hon. Friend join me in congratulating and thanking the crews of HMS Cumb...

Jim Cunningham | 524 c662 (Link to this contribution) I am sure the Foreign Secretary is aware that a number of groups over the years, particularly Christ...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c661-2 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is quite right to draw attention to those things. The Defence Secretary spoke to the ...

Sajid Javid | 524 c662 (Link to this contribution) To say that the situation in Libya is volatile, uncertain and dangerous would clearly be an understa...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c662 (Link to this contribution) We are doing everything we can diplomatically. As I said, that is what we will discuss with Presiden...

Lord McCabe | 524 c662 (Link to this contribution) Does the Foreign Secretary agree that one of the lessons of the past few days is that we must be car...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c662 (Link to this contribution) Yes. My hon. Friend makes a powerful point, and I join him in his congratulations.

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c661 (Link to this contribution) I do not fully recall the incident that the hon. Gentleman describes—I was at university at the time...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c662 (Link to this contribution) Yes, of course, but I think that the hon. Gentleman would also join me in accepting that there have ...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c663 (Link to this contribution) The policy on the no-fly zone, which the hon. Gentleman asks about, has been the same throughout. As...

Toby Perkins | 524 c663 (Link to this contribution) The Foreign Secretary is right to say that things have gone well and other things have not gone so w...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c659 (Link to this contribution) The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Nor...

Bill Esterson | 524 c659 (Link to this contribution) My constituent Jennifer Currie, her eight-month-old baby Nadia and her six-year-old daughter Alisha,...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c659 (Link to this contribution) Yes, absolutely. I also point out that the whole of Libya is subject to a United Nations internation...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c658-9 (Link to this contribution) We do not take sides in Yemeni politics. We of course want a close and friendly relationship with th...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c659 (Link to this contribution) That will be the subject of the contingency planning that we are talking about. Clearly, there are m...

Richard Drax | 524 c659 (Link to this contribution) If we have no aircraft carriers, which are needed to implement a no-fly zone, from which base would ...

Andrew Love | 524 c659-60 (Link to this contribution) Does the Foreign Secretary accept that there are still questions about his judgment at the weekend? ...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c660 (Link to this contribution) I set that out earlier, so I am not sure that it is necessary to go over it again. Clearly, some of ...

Alec Shelbrooke | 524 c660 (Link to this contribution) May I warmly welcome the Foreign Secretary's reiteration today that there will be no major intervent...

Ben Wallace | 524 c661 (Link to this contribution) In 2003, when Tony Blair led Colonel Gaddafi out of the cold, he did so on the basis that Libya gave...

Thomas Docherty | 524 c660 (Link to this contribution) Further to the questions from the hon. Members for South Dorset (Richard Drax) and for New Forest Ea...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c660 (Link to this contribution) I agree with my hon. Friend that there is much mistrust among the public about what might happen in ...

Kris Hopkins | 524 c660 (Link to this contribution) Whatever political capital or trust there was to justify international military intervention in the ...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c660 (Link to this contribution) I think that I have made my position on all that clear.

Yasmin Qureshi | 524 c660 (Link to this contribution) Will the Foreign Secretary now apologise for the fiasco over the weekend?

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c660 (Link to this contribution) As I said earlier, the measures for which we are making contingency plans require demonstrable need,...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c661 (Link to this contribution) It is true, as far as we know, that Libya continues to have stocks of mustard gas. We continue to ca...

Paul Flynn | 524 c661 (Link to this contribution) Does the Foreign Secretary recall the day when Minister Michael Heseltine, clad in a camouflage jack...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c649 (Link to this contribution) No, absolutely not. The right hon. Gentleman is right about the level of detail normally provided. T...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c663 (Link to this contribution) There is no doubt that we want to see free and fair elections in Egypt for the presidency and the Pa...

Rehman Chishti | 524 c662-3 (Link to this contribution) In Egypt, we have now seen a referendum on eight amendments to the constitution put forward by the i...

Daniel Byles | 524 c659 (Link to this contribution) As we have heard, there have been calls in some quarters for the west to arm the rebels. Students of...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c661 (Link to this contribution) Although those are entirely legitimate questions, they can be answered only after the contingency pl...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c652 (Link to this contribution) Yes, I think that is absolutely right. We have to work with people in those societies without us in ...

Lord Hague of Richmond | 524 c657 (Link to this contribution) That is a very good point. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development...

Subjects

Armed forces Demonstrations Armed conflict British nationals abroad Deployment Humanitarian aid EU action G8 Politics and government United Nations Violence Repatriation Sanctions Diplomatic relations Civil disorder European Council Palestine Middle East Yemen Egypt Libya Tunisia Gaddafi, Muammar

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