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Category: Foreign Affairs

  • Rishi Sunak – 2024 Statement on the Iranian Attack on Israel

    Rishi Sunak – 2024 Statement on the Iranian Attack on Israel

    The statement made by Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, on 13 April 2024.

    I condemn in the strongest terms the Iranian regime’s reckless attack against Israel. These strikes risk inflaming tensions and destabilising the region. Iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard.

    The UK will continue to stand up for Israel’s security and that of all our regional partners, including Jordan and Iraq.  Alongside our allies, we are urgently working to stabilise the situation and prevent further escalation. No one wants to see more bloodshed.

  • Nusrat Ghani – 2024 Speech on Ukraine’s Reconstruction

    Nusrat Ghani – 2024 Speech on Ukraine’s Reconstruction

    The speech made by Nusrat Ghani, the Minister for Europe, in Greece on 11 April 2024.

    Good afternoon – and thank you for inviting me to say a few words.

    Over two years ago, when the first tanks thundered towards Kyiv, Putin would have felt invincible.

    But events since have shown how foolish he was.

    Foolish enough to underestimate Ukraine’s bravery.

    Foolish enough to think his military’s incompetence would go unnoticed.

    And foolish enough to doubt the West’s resolve to stand so firmly behind Ukraine.

    The twisted lies Putin spreads to justify the invasion and mask his failures cannot hide a simple truth.

    He believes he can take territories and re-draw borders, when he wants, where he wants…

    …and he believes he can get away with it every single time.

    Well, not this time.

    Ukraine must win. Why? Because our collective security is at stake.

    A defeat will invite more aggression. A victory will deter it.

    The question is not whether we have the ability to achieve this – Ukraine has shown it can defend itself. The question is whether we have the will to see it through.

    By defending Ukraine, we defend the values in the UN charter we all subscribe to. The values which have allowed us to prosper.

    Respect for sovereignty is not just about maintaining lines on a map. It is about having the freedom to choose how we want to live.

    All countries have that right – and Ukraine is fighting to uphold that right for all of us.

    The UK was privileged to play its part in welcoming Ukrainians forced from their homes. But they have a right to return and we collectively have an obligation to enable them to do so.

    Putin wants them out because that is how he can destroy, displace and devalue Ukrainian identity and culture.

    We cannot hand him what he craves.

    We must also honour the legacy of Navalny and his unwavering commitment to Russian democracy. I applaud Yulia’s courage and resilience.

    Her foundation will continue Navalny’s fight, and that remains the best tribute to his enduring vision.

    So, how can we restore freedom, prosperity and democracy in Ukraine?

    I would like to highlight the three key ways in which the UK is helping to rebuild its economy.

    First, by committing financially. Over the last two years, we have provided nearly 6 billion dollars of non-military support.

    We are boosting its fiscal firepower. Last month, we worked with the World Bank to speed up and increase the size of loans.

    As a result, the UK and Japan are providing one and a half billion dollars to help with immediate pressures.

    We and our G7 partners have also been clear – Russia must pay for the damage it has caused. We will pursue all routes through which Russian assets can be used to support Ukraine.

    Second, by harnessing the power of the private sector. The World Bank judges recovery will require almost half a trillion US dollars.

    Daunting as it sounds, it is achievable if we tap into the capital, creativity and expertise of businesses.

    The Ukraine Recovery Conference in London last year mobilised international partners, including the private sector, raising a staggering 60 billion US dollars of support.

    We of course have further to go – but it was a clear indication of what we can achieve together.

    Last year, I also personally oversaw the creation of a war-risk insurance scheme to protect and encourage UK businesses supporting Ukraine.

    Finally, we are helping by stimulating Ukraine’s trading industry. Before the invasion, it was a leading exporter of food, grains, steel and much more.

    There is no reason why that should not be the case once again.

    So, the UK is undertaking a series of trade missions to strengthen long-term cooperation and galvanise investment into Ukraine.

    Make no mistake. This is the defining struggle of our generation. The make-or-break moment is this year.

    The costs of failing to support Ukraine now will be far greater than the costs of repelling Putin.

    That is why we must devote our hard-worked resources and precious time to this collective endeavour.

    There is so much to do and so little time to do it.

    I’ll just finish on what President Zelensky put so well:

    When asked what will bring the end of the war, we used to say “peace”.

    Now, we say “victory”.

    Thank you.

  • David Cameron – 2024 Statement on Vladimir Kara-Murza

    David Cameron – 2024 Statement on Vladimir Kara-Murza

    The statement made by David Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, on 11 April 2024.

    Two years on from Vladimir Kara-Murza’s arrest on fabricated charges, I urge the Russian authorities to release him immediately on humanitarian grounds.

    A committed human rights activist striving for a democratic Russia, and an outspoken critic of the war in Ukraine, Mr Kara-Murza was considered a threat by the Kremlin. Putin locked him up in a bid to silence him.

    We must call out Russia’s callous disregard for his declining health. The victim of two separate poisoning attempts prior to his imprisonment, Mr Kara-Murza is now being subjected to degrading and inhumane conditions in prison, clearly designed to further damage his physical and mental well-being. He has been refused the urgent medical treatment he so desperately needs.

    Through diplomatic interventions at the highest levels, financial sanctions targeted at those behind his poisoning and imprisonment, and by raising his case on the international stage, we are sending a clear message that the UK will not stand for this abhorrent treatment of one of our citizens.

    Russia’s depraved treatment of political prisoners must end.

  • David Cameron – 2024 Speech on the Future Role of the NATO Alliance

    David Cameron – 2024 Speech on the Future Role of the NATO Alliance

    The speech made by David Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, on 3 April 2024.

    Great to be here, in this house that has many memories for me as you can imagine, when I think of all those European Councils, where I spent late nights and early mornings, and it’s very good to be back.

    Seventy five years. NATO is 75 years old. I am 57 years old. But I hope there’s more than just the symmetry of that that I bring to this discussion. I played my part in NATO’s development and am very proud I chaired the Cardiff Summit in 2014, when I think at that stage, just 3 countries met the 2% spending floor, not ceiling, floor, and now we’re in a situation where over 20 countries out of 32 meet that target and NATO is stronger.

    I always feel that NATO wasn’t something I had to learn about or understand: I grew up with it. I was born and brought up between Greenham Common, where the cruise missiles were stationed, and Aldermaston, where our nuclear programme was centred. The first countries I visited as an adult were the Soviet Union and Eastern Union. So I never needed reminding or understanding of the vital importance of NATO in our national life.

    And it’s been extraordinary, having supported it all through its quiet years – years in which some people whether it had a functioning brain – I never lost faith in NATO. I’ve always set the faith in NATO and it’s great to be celebrating its 75th anniversary. And the 75th anniversary when it is so much stronger today than it has been for years.

    And today of course, at the NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting we welcomed Sweden for the first time as a full participant. And to bring 2 countries, Finland and Sweden, into NATO, both so highly capable militarily, so financially strong, so knowledgeable about the region, and their military obligations definitely makes NATO stronger.

    Why is NATO so successful? What is next for NATO? What will truly determine its success or failure in the years ahead?

    Why so successful? You’d have to back to 1948 and something Ernest Bevin said, he said: ‘decisions we take now will be vital to the future peace of the world’. That was absolutely prophetic and right. At the heart of NATO’s success is the incredible simplicity of Article Five: an attack on one is an attack on all is something all participants and all people could understand.

    And of course, it was combined with that sense when it was founded of a clear and growing threat. And Most of NATO’s life has had a clear threat; we certainly have that today. Its success is clearly based on its continued expansion.

    What is next for NATO? While it’s clear NATO is not a participant in the conflict in Ukraine, the outcome of that war what happens in Ukraine is, in my view, absolutely vital to the future of Ukraine, and that is why one of the reasons why Britain so strongly supports Ukraine struggle.

    I was meeting earlier with the Slovak Foreign Minister and I pointed out something that not a lot of people know, that my closest relative who was in politics, Duff Cooper, who resigned in 1938 because of the Munich Conference and the decision to dismember Czechoslovakia. To me what we face today is as simple as that. We have a tyrant in Europe who is trying to redraw borders by force. You can appease that approach or you can confront that approach, which is undoubtedly the right thing to do, to confront.

    And that is what we’re doing by giving Ukraine such strong support. I see with Ukraine 2 futures that are open to NATO, to Europe and countries like Britain: there is a future where we support Ukraine, where Putin does not win in Ukraine, where Ukraine recovers its territory and is capable of having a just peace.

    That future is an incredibly bright one for Britain, for Europe, for NATO – it’s a future where NATO will be strong, everyone will see the strength of its alliance, everyone will recognise Ukraine should be and will be a part of NATO, NATO’s capability will grow and people will see that we in the West are capable of standing up to a threat of this magnitude.

    But there is another future, for NATO, the West, Britain and that is one where we allow Ukraine to fail and Putin to succeed; and the celebrations will be held in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and North Korea. That is a very bleak future: not only because I believe other European countries would be at risk but I think all around the world people will look around and wonder how willing to stand up for our Allies, how reliable we were as an Ally.

    And even, the absolute key to NATO of Article 5, Allies in Europe will start looking at each other and wondering how much they can really trust each other, when they said they were going to stand up for each other and oppose aggression. I think the biggest test for European nations is this issue of Ukraine and that is why it is my number one priority as Foreign Secretary and something that this government is giving so much effort and thought and resources to.

    But of course it’s not the only threat and it’s not the only issue that NATO has to face in terms of what is next. we face an incredibly dangerous and difficult and disputation relational world with so many conflicts. We have the instability in the Middle East instability in Africa, more conflicts in Africa than perhaps we’ve had for the last 40 years.

    And of course, we had a timely reminder last week with the issue of Chinese, the cyber attacks on great hardware blocks, that we face threats, not only in terms of the Russian threat, but also the threat that we face, instability to our South and in the Indo-Pacific reaching into our own region. NATO has a role to play in addressing all of those threats. The UK is determined to support all the NATO strategies in dealing with those threats.

    The final point I wanted to make is, what will determine the success or failure of NATO? There are some simple, Treasury-like technical answers to that: success will depend on more and more countries reaching 2% or more countries seeing 2% as a floor and not a ceiling and we have seen such great progress there.

    A large part of the answer will be how capable NATO is of modernising all our armed forces and making sure their compatibility interoperability. A lot of NATO success will depend on when we make Ukraine a member, with its professional and capable armed forces.

    But I would say the biggest determinant of success or failure goes back to what I said at the start: I grew up believing in NATO because it had a relevance to my life. If you came of age politically in the 1980s, you could see the importance of the solidarity that NATO brought, you could see the importance of the strong defence that kept Europe and Britain safe. But can we actually say that, about future generations, you haven’t grown up with that knowledge but have grown up in a different situation?

    And I think we have to win the argument for NATO all over again with a new generation. A generation that can see yes, the threat from Russia. We need to go back to a foundational argument, which is this, that fundamentally the greatness of NATO is that it allows countries to choose their own future.

    When I looked at my colleagues from Latvia, Lithuania Estonia, when I look at Radek Sikorski from people whose countries who chose to join NATO after the fall of the Iron Curtain, NATO membership is really what gave them the ability to make a choice about the sort of country they would be and the values they would follow.

    That’s an incredibly strong values-based argument that a younger generation can understand and see. I just think the one figure to back it up: when the Iron Curtain fell, Poland recovered its ability to govern itself and its economy was 3 times the size of that of Belarus; today it’s 10 times the size.

    There’s no reason why Ukraine is so many times poorer than Poland, very similar countries, very similar parts of the world. It’s the ability NATO gives to allow countries to choose to be democracies, to choose to have rights and to choose to have the rule of law, to adopt an open-market trading system and form those sorts of relations with other countries.

    That’s the argument I think we need to make today and that is the argument that can help us to win all over again the backing for NATO, that it will need, as we ask our publics to fund and support the defence budgets and NATO budgets, as we ask NATO to do more, not just in supporting what we’re doing in UKR but also supporting what we need to do in a more unstable and more unsafe words.

    So I feel more confident as a 57 year-old supporting a 75 year-old that I’m backing a winner: it’s been a winner for 75 years, it’s been it’s been the most successful defensive alliance in the history of the world and if we back it financially, and back it in its expansion and also back it with values-based arguments, there’s no reason it won’t continue have another 75 years of extraordinary success.

  • Keir Starmer – 2024 Statement Condemning Israeli Attack on Aid Workers

    Keir Starmer – 2024 Statement Condemning Israeli Attack on Aid Workers

    The statement made by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, on 2 April 2024.

    Reports of the death of British nationals – among others from World Central Kitchen – in an Israeli strike on Gaza are horrifying. Our thoughts are with the families of all of those killed.

    We condemn this strike. There must be a full investigation and those responsible must be held to account.

    Humanitarian workers put their lives in danger to serve others. Their deaths are outrageous and unacceptable – and it is not the first time aid workers have come under fire in Israel’s campaign. International law must be upheld and humanitarian workers must be protected so that they can deliver the aid that is so desperately needed.

    This war must stop now. Far too many innocent people have died in this conflict and more than a million are facing starvation. Labour repeats our call for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages and full humanitarian access into Gaza.

  • David Cameron – 2024 Statement on Aid Worker Deaths in Gaza

    David Cameron – 2024 Statement on Aid Worker Deaths in Gaza

    The statement made by David Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, on 2 April 2024.

    The news of the airstrike that killed World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers in Gaza is deeply distressing.

    These were people who were working to deliver life-saving aid to those who desperately need it.

    It is essential that humanitarian workers are protected and able to carry out their work.

    We have called on Israel to immediately investigate and provide a full, transparent explanation of what happened.

  • David Cameron – 2024 Speech at the Blue Belt Symposium

    David Cameron – 2024 Speech at the Blue Belt Symposium

    The speech made by David Cameron, the Prime Minister, on 29 February 2024.

    It is a huge pleasure to be with you on this day where we are celebrating yet another expansion of the Blue Belt.

    It is something I started as Prime Minister in 2014. I remember some very talented and committed environmental enthusiasts like Zac Goldsmith, Oliver Letwin, Richard Benyon coming and seeing me and telling me about this idea and getting really excited by the idea of what it could all mean. You have these sort of meetings and think, ‘will anything come out of it?’ And now when I look around and see what you have all achieved, it really is a great cause for celebration and so it is a real privilege to be with you and celebrate it tonight.

    There are 5 obvious things to say about why I’m so enthusiastic about it.

    Firstly, incomparably, it is the right thing to do. We all know the stress that our oceans are under. We all know problems of plastic, the problems of overfishing, the problems of deep-sea mining, the problems of over-extraction, we know all those problems.

    This isn’t the answer to all of them, but it is part of the answer. And it is such a brilliant answer. And, we know the oceans are responsible for 50% of the oxygen in our atmosphere and so it is undoubtably the right thing to do.

    My father used to say to me, “if you get involved in politics, always remember, it is never the wrong time to do the right thing”. Well, this is incomparably the right thing. And it is so good that we are all doing it together.

    The second is, it is beautifully simple.

    I’m a bit of country boy, I represented a rural seat in Oxfordshire for many years, and the idea of fallowing, leaving a field fallowed, to let the land get back some of the minerals, some of the goodness, some of things you need in order to have productive soil. Something we’ve done for ages, forever.

    And applying that principle to our oceans is such a simple concept. As I say, it won’t solve all the problems but giving a large part of our oceans a rest, a break, is so easy to get a hold of as a concept. It something we are doing, which the rest of the world is applauding. The United Nations have set a target that 30% of our oceans should have this break by 2030 and the Overseas Territories of Britain are certainly doing our bit. In fact, more than our bit.

    The third thing I love about it is that it is big and it is bold. We are not the biggest country in the world, we are the 6th largest economy in the world. Some of the Territories represented here – from Pitcairn to British Virgin Islands to Tristan da Cunha – are not the largest countries in the world either but what we have done is something amazing.

    This is the biggest Blue Belt in the world. On the planet. The biggest one that has ever been created. Between us, we’ve done something together that is absolutely world-beating and world-leading. And bigger than anybody.

    The fourth thing I wanted to say is this is such a good example of partnership.

    I know that sometimes the Overseas Territories can feel as though they are not as loved as they should be, they can sometimes feel that they don’t get all the attention they should get. I really want us to change that and I think we are changing. I think you’ve got an excellent minister in David Rutley, he is not here tonight he’s probably on one of the islands. He works so hard and has done so much to bring the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies together.

    I’m feeling pumped up about the Overseas Territories having just come back from a trip to the Falklands Islands, a wonderful place. There aren’t many places where a politician like me can go for a walk about and you have such a wonderful time and everybody is lovely to you, I thought ‘this is great, I can even come and live here’.

    Fifth and final thing, is this issue of legacy.

    Legacy for all of us. I’ve got 3 relatively young children. And they care about this issue on our planet, on our climate and what we are going to leave to our children, more than any other issue. And they are always quite rightly challenging me and others about what we are doing.

    There is no doubt that when the history books are written, about what we did to cut carbon in our atmosphere, what we did to make the green transition, what we did to move away from coal, there will be some good things we’ll be able to say and some things we’ll be less mad about.

    But there is no doubt that on this agenda, we’ll be able to say that Britain created, with the OTs, the biggest, the best, the boldest in terms of marine conservation and in terms of Blue Belt, in terms of giving our oceans, our seas, a break.

    I think that is something we can all be proud of. It is something to celebrate, it is something to think about. There are so many issues we discuss every day that we won’t even remember in ten, twenty years’ time. ‘Why did that minister resign, why was that scandal happening in parliament?’ Can’t remember any of them. But this we will remember, and we should remember it with pride.

    I want to thank everyone that has made this possible. All the organisations that have helped. But above all, the Overseas Territories that have helped bring this together, that have helped create this Blue Belt, and create this massive bonus for the environment, bonus for oceans and legacy for our children and grandchildren.

    Thank you very much indeed.

  • David Rutley – 2024 Speech on UK-US Fusion Energy ollaboration

    David Rutley – 2024 Speech on UK-US Fusion Energy ollaboration

    The speech made by David Rutley, the Minister for the Americas, Caribbean and the Overseas Territories, in Boston, the United States on 20 February 2024.

    Well, good evening. It’s great to be with all of you and it’s fantastic to be back at Harvard Business School.

    What you didn’t say was that it was a long time ago – several decades ago to be perfectly honest.

    And this amazing building, well, I seem to remember it perhaps being a car park or something at that particular moment in time and it’s great to see how things are moving forward in B School, but also more widely here in this super vibrant part of the US.

    When I arrived here in 1987 – it was a long time ago – Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were leaders of the UK and the US.

    Now for some of you in this room, that’s ancient history but it was a reality at the time and I was just checking out to make sure that all of the points in my really heavy speech here were fact-checked.

    But the highest-grossing single – if any of you know what a single was – that year, was ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ by the Bangles.

    It was that long ago, but what that shows is, is that things might change but the constant is that the output from places like HBS and MIT here is just phenomenal.

    It is a great honour, genuinely, to be asked here today, particularly on this all-important subject of fusion.

    We’re very grateful for everything you’re doing to develop and to promote, publicise, fusion technology; pushing the very frontiers of science and bringing what was once science fiction, particularly back in those days, to the very cusp of reality today.

    It’s really exciting to speak to some of you about your plans and the collaboration that is going on between the UK and the US.

    You know, we face great challenges today – climate change and rapidly-evolving geopolitical events have brought home the importance of ensuring our energy security and finding energy super-sources which are affordable, reliable, and sustainable.

    In this context, the world-changing potential of nuclear fusion for helping solve these challenges could not be clearer.

    Not only that, but commercialising fusion presents significant economic opportunities as well.

    If we get this right, we could deliver global energy security and decarbonisation, while also delivering abundant energy and economic growth for all our communities.

    That is why the UK has been leading the way in moving fusion energy forward.

    From the Culham Centre in Oxfordshire, which has been at the cutting edge of fusion science for almost 60 years, to the UK-based companies like Tokamak, who are pioneering commercial fusion energy.

    And just a few weeks ago, we announced that the UK-based Joint European Torus fusion reactor achieved a world record for energy output. It produced high fusion power consistently for five seconds, resulting in a ground-breaking record of 69 megajoules, using a mere 0.2 milligrams of fuel.

    The UK Government also launched a refreshed Fusion Energy Strategy in October, outlining our vision to support the fusion sector through investment, upskilling, and of course, that vital international collaboration.

    It includes up to £650 million in investment for a new ‘Fusion Futures Programme’.

    This Programme will fund a number of initiatives, like a fuel cycle testing facility to support fusion commercialisation, and new premises for private fusion companies at the Culham Centre.

    Education and training will drive the future of fusion.

    That’s why this Programme will fund a Fusion Skills Centre, which will train over 2,200 people by working with businesses and universities to increase the number of apprentices and postgraduates working on fusion.

    It will also have a significant outreach programme, particularly targeting under-represented groups.

    As I’m sure you’ll appreciate, outreach here is absolutely vital. Public engagement and science communication should be central to our mission.

    Coming from a non-science background, I can sympathise with how science can seem mystifying to some, and recent years have shown the dangers of science misinformation.

    But all of us again must ensure that people understand fusion energy, its risks and of course, its opportunities.

    And after all, it is up to us to inspire and nurture the next generation of passionate fusion scientists, engineers, and communicators.

    But we cannot do this alone. Fusion is a global endeavour, and the realisation of fusion energy requires continued collaboration.

    This evening I have met of course Brits, but Americans and even some Canadians and others – we need to collaborate, both to accelerate commercialisation and  to reduce the cost of fusion energy development.

    Our Fusion Futures Programme aims to strengthen existing international collaborations, as well as exploring new opportunities to contribute globally.

    And of course, the US will be one of our most important allies in all of this – our countries continue to lead the world in scientific research, and are home to the majority of the world’s top 10 universities, including this hallowed institution.

    That is why in November, we launched a strategic partnership with the US to accelerate fusion energy demonstration and commercialisation.

    This new partnership builds on longstanding collaboration between our research institutions and private sectors and aims to deepen our commitment to working together to solve these difficult challenges.

    Through it, we want to advance collaborative efforts on technical challenges, supply chain building, skills development, and public engagement.

    Let me just conclude by saying that I’m sure there’s no doubt amongst us that the world needs fusion now more than ever.

    And it is only going to be through this collaboration that we realise the perpetual human dream of unlimited, clean energy for all.

    It is a huge priority on both sides of the Atlantic and, of course, for the world.

    Thank you so much.

  • Wayne David – 2024 Speech on Freedom and Democracy in Iran

    Wayne David – 2024 Speech on Freedom and Democracy in Iran

    The speech made by Wayne David, the Labour MP for Caerphilly, in the House of Commons on 1 February 2024.

    I commend the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for introducing this debate and the Backbench Business Committee for allowing the time for it.

    This debate is important and timely. Although we have had only a few contributions, they have been significant and important. The hon. Member mentioned the Ashraf 3 camp in Albania, and although it is not entirely clear what has happened there it is important to note his point that the Inter-Parliamentary Union, for which I am on the executive of the British group, will be sending a delegation to Albania. I will make a point of making sure, as best I can, that the delegation raises the matter in its visit.

    At the start of my contribution, I make the point that the authoritarian and theocratic regime in Iran presents and presides over a reprehensible repressive state. As has been said, there is little real democracy in today’s Iran. At the beginning of March, there will be elections to the Iranian Parliament and the Assembly of Experts. As has been the case in the past, the Council of Guardians will prevent candidates standing whom the Supreme Leader does not approve. We expect that those who are blocked will be moderate and reforming candidates.

    The elections will rightly attract a great deal of attention, not least because they are the first to be held since the widespread protests in Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. As I am sure many Members are aware, her death in September 2022 occurred in police custody after she had been arrested for not complying with strict Islamic dress code. Following her death, there were widespread protests across Iran for a number of months. They were cruelly repressed by the regime, but it is important to remember and to pay tribute to the many thousands of women and girls who were brave enough to take part. Indeed, I was proud to speak in an event in this House organised by the Azadi Network. Speakers were from all parties in this House, and they demonstrated a real solidarity, which all parties have clearly expressed, and I stress that that is so important. It was the House of Commons saying to the Iranian people, “We are with you.”

    The protests were subject to appalling brutality in Iran, meted out by the Iranian authorities. It is estimated that at least 20,000 people were detained, including many children. It is estimated, too, that more than 500 people were killed, and many more were seriously injured. The violence did not stop with the end of the demonstrations: there have been many allegations of torture and appalling treatment of detainees, including reports of sexual and gender-based violence against women, men and children.

    As has been said, Amnesty International has reported that Iranian security forces are guilty of using the most terrible sexual violence against people who are merely peaceful protesters. It is important to note the comments made by the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who spoke eloquently about the lack of human rights and pointed out the lack of religious freedom in today’s Iran.

    If the Iranian regime is repressive at home, it is guilty of aggression abroad. In fact, it is among the world’s foremost state sponsors of terrorism. Iran, through its so-called proxies, is guilty of helping to initiate violence across much of the middle east. Iran has supplied huge support to Hamas in Gaza. It has supplied and supported Hezbollah in Lebanon and is still doing so. In Iraq—including in Kurdistan—and in Syria, Iranian sponsored militants have attacked US forces. On Sunday, an Iran-backed group was responsible for a drone attack on a US military base in Jordan that resulted in the death of three American soldiers and the injury of many other people.

    As we all know, the Houthis, who again are closely linked to the Iranian regime, have been conducting missile and drone attacks on international shipping in the Red sea. Of course, the US and the UK have been undertaking surgical strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, and Labour is on record as supporting that proportionate action. Further afield, the Iranian regime has developed close links with Russia and has supplied a large number of drones that are being used in Ukraine, so there can be absolutely no doubt about the Iranian regime’s malign influence across the middle east and the world.

    On Tuesday, I raised Iran’s destructive activities across the globe with the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), at FCDO questions. He indicated that the Foreign Secretary was in the region that day and holding meetings on the very issue. He also said that the Government were

    “working extensively with Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, Saudi Arabia and America.”—[Official Report, 30 January 2024; Vol. 744, c. 710.]

    I would be appreciative if the Minister indicated in his reply how those meetings went and how the ongoing discussions will proceed on this important issue.

    We are aware that Iran is active in this country. As a number of hon. Members, including the hon. Member for Harrow East, said, the head of MI5 has previously referred to potential threats by Iran to kidnap or kill British or UK-based people. In 2015, the police discovered an Iranian-linked bomb factory in London. Since the beginning of 2022, Iranians have been responsible for at least 15 potential threats against British or UK-based individuals. That was recognised by a number of hon. Members in the Chamber.

    Earlier this week, The Times reported that a number of members of the Iranian diaspora who have spoken out against the Iranian regime have been warned by counter-terrorism police that they face an increased threat. It is also important to note that the Iranian authorities have been systematically targeting BBC Persian staff, intimidating their families in Iran as well as intimidating staff in this country. Since the protests in Iran in 2022, the BBC security team has reported that the risks to BBC Persian staff have “increased”. Because of those very real threats, I believe that the sanctions introduced, and the further ones announced, should be welcomed. I hope, however, that the Government will closely examine other ways in which pressure can be brought to bear on the appalling Iranian regime.

    One additional measure ought to be the total proscription of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. I understand that there is ongoing debate in Government about this, but if they do not bring forward appropriate measures that would lead to a total ban of the IRGC in this country, Labour will do so if it forms a Government. If the Government do that now, Labour will support it. I hope that the Government will respond in a truly positive way.

    This has been an important debate with excellent contributions. This issue should unite all of us who believe strongly in democracy, freedom and human rights in this country and throughout the world.

  • Martyn Day – 2024 Speech on Freedom and Democracy in Iran

    Martyn Day – 2024 Speech on Freedom and Democracy in Iran

    The speech made by Martyn Day, the SNP MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk, in the House of Commons on 1 February 2024.

    I am grateful to the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for securing this debate. The issue of freedom and democracy in Iran is a very important one, and I find myself commending him for his speech and agreeing with every point he made.

    As we have heard, the issue is really about a lack of democracy and a lack of freedom. Elections will of course be held on 1 March to Iran’s Parliament, but they can in no way can be considered free, fair or credible. It is more of a selection than an election, with the unelected, 12-strong Guardian Council having the power to approve candidates. With a track record of banning moderates and reformers from standing, it is no surprise that many candidates have already been disqualified. This body can also veto laws made by the Parliament.

    My litmus test for fair, free and credible democratic elections is: can any individual freely stand for election, can anyone vote in secret for any individual who is standing and can the sovereignty of the people be exercised by their representatives? Clearly, Iran fails on all those counts. The reality is that Iran is ruled as a totalitarian theocracy: it is not a democracy. Ultimate power rests in the hands of the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the unelected institutions under his control.

    Corruption persists across all levels, with powerful actors such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps operating beyond scrutiny. Media and civil society face restrictions hindering their role as independent watchdogs for ensuring transparency and accountability. The regime, as we have heard, is ruthlessly held in place by its intelligence and security force the IRGC and is supported by the wider apparatus of the state, including the judiciary, the Ministry of Intelligence, the police and others.

    Iranian authorities have extensively used Iran’s repressive machinery to censor discussion of these issues and persecute women, human rights defenders and anti-death penalty activists. Political activists who support democratic change have been particularly vulnerable to detention and death over many years, despite which the organised resistance, the People’s Mujaheddin Organisation of Iran—or MEK—have remained determined to establish a free democratic and secular republic, and I wish them every success with that struggle.

    The level of oppression and human rights abuses by the current regime in Iran is truly appalling and is getting worse. According to Freedom House, Iran has decreased its total global freedom status from a derisory 14 out of 100 in 2022 to 12 out of 100 last year. Freedom House gave Iran zero scores for most areas of fundamental rights including: the individual right to practice or express religion, faith or non-belief in public and private; free and independent media; the Government operating with openness and transparency; safeguards against corruption; the question of whether the freely elected head of Government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the Government; and fair and free elections.

    The UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran expressed alarm at

    “the disproportionate number of executions of members of minority communities, in particular the Baluch and Kurdish minorities”,

    and I share this concern. Last year, at least 864 people were executed, the highest figure since 2017. Any use of the death penalty is unacceptable to me and I believe this substantial increase reflects the regime’s inability to suppress the protests that have arisen.

    Women lack equality and face discrimination in both law and practice. Examples include a woman’s testimony in court being given half the weight of a man’s and unequal compensation for victims’ families. Women also face disparities in inheritance rights. The regime fails to protect women and children from sex trafficking while Iranians and migrant workers, especially from Afghanistan, are subject to forced labour and debt bondage.

    The reality is that some 88 million Iranians are effectively living in what is a state prison, otherwise known as the Islamic Republic of Iran. But it does not have to be that way and I applaud the courage and determination of those who have stood up to the regime and protested for the rights that we take for granted, and have done so at great risk to themselves.

    The ongoing uprising began in September 2022 with the arrest of a Kurdish Iranian girl in Tehran by the Tehran morality police for not veiling, after which she was brutally beaten, fell into a coma and tragically lost her life while in custody. That brutal killing of Mahsa Amini prompted widespread protests across Iran, with thousands of people demanding regime change for a secular democratic republic. The ongoing uprising has resulted in over 800 unlawful deaths, including of minors and women. Additionally, around 30,000 Iranians face cruel treatment in jails, including torture and sexual violence, highlighting the dire situation in Iran.

    Ultimately, Iran’s future must be decided by its own people, but given that they have virtually no avenues for reform, the people have no option but to resist, to demonstrate, to defend themselves, and to seek alternative forms of opposition. Iran has been witnessing a massive popular uprising—a call for freedom and democracy largely led by women and young people. I have heard it described by some as a revolution, and I hope it is a successful one. It has clearly rattled the Tehran regime and I believe this is partly behind the regime promoting and encouraging conflict outwith its borders as it seeks to dampen the momentum of the protests inside Iran while simultaneously rallying the regime’s own forces behind the Supreme Leader’s fundamentalist agenda.

    As we have heard, Iran is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism. This exporting of international terrorism by Iran cannot and will not be tolerated, nor should be its support for Russia in the war with Ukraine, use of cyber-attacks, or hostage-taking diplomacy, and I condemn the involvement of Iranian officials in the killing of US servicemen. According to reports in The Times on Tuesday this week:

    “Tehran has already been accused by MI5 and police of more than a dozen assassination and kidnap plots in Britain against dissidents and media organisations in the past two years. Officials have previously expressed fears that, emboldened by the situation in the Middle East, Iran could ramp up its activity in the UK and present a wider terror threat.”

    Although I welcome the recent announcement of additional sanctions on senior Iranian officials, I wonder why we are not taking an even stronger approach. At a minimum, we should urgently proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation. I have lost count of the number of times that I and others have called for that action. Proscription would be a tangible step in the UK in the furtherance of freedom and democracy in Iran. We should also support calls for the UN to dispatch international observers to visit Iran’s prisons and to meet those detained by the regime. We should all support the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people. I pay tribute to the work of the resistance units that emerged in late 2017 and have helped inspire Iranians to defy the prevailing tyranny.

    In conclusion, the SNP stands in full solidarity with Iranians journalists, women, men and young people calling for democratic change. The bravery of Iranian citizens standing up against brutality and dictatorship is beyond inspiring. I wish them every success in seeking a new democratic and secular republic in Iran. It will be better for them and the world when they succeed.