Gulf of Aqaba (Hansard, 11 February 1957)

§ 16. Mr. Gresham Cooke
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the Government's policy towards the maintenance of freedom of navigation in the Gulf of Aqaba.

§ Mr. Selwyn Lloyd
In the view of Her Majesty's Government the Straits of Tiran are an international waterway, through which vessels of the States bordering on the Gulf of Aqaba are entitled to free passage to and from the high seas. My right hon. and gallant Friend the Minister of State told the United Nations General Assembly on 18th January that Her Majesty's Government would support any acceptable form of internationalisation or any other arrangements guaranteeing free passage through the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba, to which Jordan no less than Israel would be entitled.

§ Mr. Gresham Cooke
While thanking my right hon. and learned Friend for that answer, may I ask whether some specific guarantee should not be given to Israel of freedom of navigation in the Gulf? Is it right to ask Israel to withdraw until she has some guarantee about the gun emplacement at Sharm el Sheikh? What would be my right hon. and learned Friend's opinion about Egypt's attitude towards a continuing state of war with Israel over the Gulf of Aqaba?

§ Mr. Lloyd
In answer to a later Question, I shall be dealing rather more fully with some of those points. In a sense, this is a combined operation and I think it is unwise to talk too much about either guarantees or conditions on the one side, 894 or sanctions on the other side. I think that this is a matter which the collective wisdom of the United Nations ought to be able to solve. The first step is that there should be agreement about the withdrawal and the second step is that there should be agreement about freedom of passage and these other matters. I see no reason why the one process should not follow the other, but if we get too much wrapped up in the formalities we may not get the settlement that we desire.

§ Mr. Bevan
Is the Foreign Secretary not aware that opinion on this side of the House is to the effect that whereas it may not be a proper procedure for Israel to attach conditions for her withdrawal from the area, nevertheless guarantees about navigation for Israel and Jordan should occur simultaneously and it would not be sufficient to ask Israel to withdraw and then wait to see what Egypt does? As Mr. Pearson has, I think, already pointed out, these should be simultaneous operations.

§ Mr. Lloyd
That is the view which Her Majesty's Government have stated in the United Nations, that it is wrong for the United Nations simply to call upon Israel to withdraw. If the United Nations calls upon Israel to withdraw, of course the moving in of the United Nations force would follow, but the United Nations must at the same time set out the kind of arrangements behind which it intends to put the weight of its international authority with a view to achieving the purposes upon which, I think, we all in this House agree.

§ Captain Waterhouse
Is it not a fact that Egypt really has no de jure right in the bulk of the Sinai Peninsula and that her position there derives from years of administration, first of all under Turkey and secondly because nobody else wanted to interfere with that administration? As long as the administration was sound, was it not to our advantage to support Egypt, but now that she is taking a quite different attitude and is using this territory as a jumping-off ground against Israel and for piracy in the Gulf of Aqaba, will my right hon. and learned Friend not consider the advisability of having this whole issue raised at the United Nations?

§ Mr. Lloyd
I am aware of the legal point to which my right hon. and gallant 895 Friend refers. I would rather not pronounce upon that matter at this moment, but I think that what he has said has relevance to one particular point: that is, with regard to the future of the Gaza strip. That is a piece of ground where there is admittedly no claim to national sovereignty. It seems to me that one of the obvious solutions which the United Nations ought to reach is to say that that is an area which will be under international control, both militarily and civil. Then we can make a beginning with solving this problem with the hope that that view will command a majority.

§ Mr. Shinwell
While appreciating the attitude of the Government as expressed by the right hon. and learned Gentleman upon the question addressed to him, may I ask whether he can say whether in the recent negotiations between the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Egyptian Government the Egyptian Government have been directed by the United Nations to observe international law concerning free navigation through the Straits of Tiran?

§ Mr. Lloyd
Of course, I do not know the nature of the confidential exchanges which have taken place between the Secretary-General and the Government of Egypt. It is my hope and the hope of the Government that the Secretary-General is doing all he possibly can to see that the rather imprecise Resolution of 2nd February about these matters is being carried out. I very much hope he will succeed in persuading the Government of Egypt, in the interests of security in the area, that something of that sort has to be done.

§ Dame Irene Ward
Will my right hon. and learned Friend bear in mind that what is worrying me is how much wisdom we may expect from the United Nations?

§ Sir L. Ungoed-Thomas
Will the Foreign Secretary bear in mind that Egypt has flouted the United Nations Resolution concerning freedom of navigation by Israel and observance of the Armistice and that Israel has observed the United Nations Resolutions relating to the whole of the Sinai Peninsula except the Gaza strip and the Aqaba strip which are the two parts of the peninsula particularly affected by Egypt's flouting of the United Nations Resolution? Will he 896 tell the House that he will oppose the course which is now apparently being pursued by the United States and the Afro-Asian bloc to enforce the Resolutions against Israel whilst not at the same time enforcing the Resolutions against Egypt?

§ Mr. Lloyd
I can certainly say that the whole of the efforts of the Government will be directed towards solving the problems which, we say, are inter-related, the withdrawal of the Israeli forces and the contriving or arrangement of a status for both the Gaza strip and freedom of passage through the Straits of Tiran.

§ Mr. Bevan
Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman make it clear that the United States would make a very considerable contribution towards the restoration of Anglo-American relations by seeing eye-to-eye with Great Britain in this matter?

§ Mr. Lloyd
I think all that it would be wise for me to say is that the right hon. Gentleman can draw his own conclusions as to that.