Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action is under way to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and previous resolutions on Syria.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
On 11 February, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), took part in the latest round of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) meeting in Munich to discuss with his counterparts how to best support the political process and necessary supporting steps, including a ceasefire and confidence building measures, called for in UN Security Council resolution 2254.
The ISSG agreed the need to implement a cessation of hostilities within a week, to delivering humanitarian assistance to named besieged communities by this weekend and to facilitate rapid progress in negotiations aimed at political transition. If implemented fully and properly by every ISSG member this will be an important step towards relieving the killing and suffering in Syria. But it will only succeed if there is a major change of behaviour by the Syrian regime and its supporters. Russia, in particular, claims to be attacking terrorist groups and yet consistently bombs non-extremist groups including civilians. If this agreement is to work, this bombing will have to stop: no cessation of hostilities will last if moderate opposition groups continue to be targeted.
