My Intervention on the Ministerial Statement on the Humanitarian Situation in Gaza

Last week, I joined a Parliamentary delegation to Qatar and met Dr Majed Al Ansari, Official Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was involved with the negotiations of the hostage release and the temporary humanitarian truce which was secured working with Egypt, the USA, Israel and others. What was clear is that this was a fragile truce that required greater pressure from the international community on all relevant parties: from the Middle East countries, like Qatar, on Hamas, from the USA and the UK on the Israelis to bring an end to the bloodshed.

Today, once again, I highlighted to the Minister the urgent need for the UK Government, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a member of the G7, to use its powers to work to bring an end to the bloodshed by applying pressure on the USA and Israel to work for an enduring, permanent ceasefire.

Our focus needs to be on keeping the pressure on those countries that can exert the most influence on the warring parties. Unfortunately, nominal votes in the UK’s Parliament by opposition parties will not bring about an end to the conflict that is desperately needed.

Securing a ceasefire will continue to require painstaking negotiations and intense diplomacy between key players in the international community and in particular the USA and Arab countries.