Middle East Peace Process (Hansard, 3 February 1993)

§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Chalker of Wallasey)
My Lords, yes. The European Community will continue to urge all parties to persevere with the peace process.

§ Lord Hylton
My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Baroness for her reply. However, will the Government confirm that it really is in the interests of the whole world and particularly of the European Community that these negotiations should be resumed without delay? Will the Community use the whole of its financial and commercial power to ensure resumption and a carrying through of the process to a successful completion?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, I very much agree with the noble Lord that an early resumption of the peace process is in everyone's interests. The role of the European Community is to help the parties reach agreement. It is not for us to prescribe a solution which, to be durable, must be freely agreed between the parties.

§ Lord Bottomley
My Lords, does the Minister agree that if the Arab countries held out the hand of friendship to the Israelis and recognised their existence, that would do more to bring about a peaceful solution in the Middle East than any other method?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, the noble Lord is absolutely right. Friendship can be a great precursor to lasting peace. We have always considered, as I think he knows, the Arab boycott iniquitous and incompatible with the spirit of the peace process. We made a series of demarches in Arab capitals in September. We have urged, as EC partners, both the Arab League and the Arab governments to end the boycott as part of the confidence-building process. That would be a very good step forward. I hope that when any single country does start a greater friendship, as from time to time Egypt has tried to do, other Arab nations will not condemn it for doing so.

§ Lord Stoddart of Swindon
My Lords, would it not help friendship if all parties in the Middle East obeyed United Nations Resolutions? Would it not also help the peace process at the present time if Israel in particular obeyed the United Nations resolution which says that the people expelled from Gaza should be immediately returned to their homes?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, I think your Lordships already know that not only did we vote for Security Council Resolution 799, which is the one to which the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, referred, but we fully believe that the Israelis should comply with it. However, they have taken a sizeable step towards implementing it. One hundred returnees are not enough; we hope that they will build on that. The main objective must be to ensure the early resumption of the peace process. That requires the kind of flexibility that the noble Lord was indicating.

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords, it is very difficult to chuck out a couple of hundred people from the country which they think is their country, then take back 100 or so and offer them the hand of friendship at the same time. Does the Minister not agree that all sides—Arabs and Israelis—should sit down sensibly under the auspices of the United Nations and proclaim a form of peace which would last for quite some time?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
Yes, my Lords, but I think recent events simply underline that the peace process is the only way to resolve the overall problems of the region. Above all, it is important that all sides reinforce their efforts to negotiate peace. That is the main objective. The successful resumption of the process must be achieved.

§ Lord Mayhew
My Lords, the noble Baroness quite rightly said that it is not for the European Community to prescribe a solution. But most emphatically it is for the Community to try to get United Nations resolutions enforced. Is she aware that the Israelis are still wholly at variance with United Nations Resolution 799 regarding the deportees? What action has the Community taken? We know that over many years the Community has protested to successive Israeli governments about their violations of Security Council resolutions. Is not the time coming to go beyond mere protests and exercise some pressure on Israel to obey international laws?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, as I said earlier in answer to the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, it is absolutely essential that Security Council Resolution 799 is enforced. I believe that one of the difficulties is that at times we may not have been heard. However, I am glad to be able to tell your Lordships that on Monday of this week the presidency of the European Community informed Mr. Peres that the EC did not want to be put into the position of having to address the issue of the updating of the 1975 EC-Israel co-operation agreement in the absence of a solution to the deportations problem. So actually we have made it abundantly clear to the Government of Israel this very week.

§ Lord Richard
My Lords, from recent press reports it would certainly seem that the release back into Israel of 100 people expelled by the Israelis is part of an agreement between Israel and the Americans whereby Israel releases 100 deportees and the Americans agree to use their veto to protect Israel in the Security Council. First, can the noble Baroness say whether that is her understanding of the relationship between the United States and Israel on this matter? Secondly, can she give the House an assurance that, whatever the Americans may have said to Israel about it, the United Kingdom is not following the same path?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, I am not prepared to speculate, even in answer to the noble Lord, Lord Richard, as to what the US-Israeli agreement might or might not be. Given that it is very early days for policy matters in Washington, I should be surprised if anything as clear as the suggestion made by the noble Lord had actually come about. I have made quite clear our position which is supported by our 11 fellow-members of the European Community. I do not believe that anything which varies from that is in the best interests of Israel and is certainly not our policy.

§ Lord Kennet
My Lords, will the Government bring their voice to bear in informing the new United States Administration, and if possible publicly, of the fact that Israel would not have been in a position to defy a whole string of United Nations resolutions over the past 30 years if it had not been for the military aid given to them by the United States, which is of course far greater than that given by that country to any other country in the world?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, I know of the preoccupation of the noble Lord, Lord Kennet, with these matters. If Israel had not acquired her armaments from the United States of America, I have no doubt that she would have done so from elsewhere. I return to what I have already said in answer to the noble Lord, Lord Mayhew, and many other noble Lords, that I believe that full compliance with Security Council Resolution 799 is the only way in which we can proceed in peace.