To ask His Majesty’s Government, following the deployment of UK naval and air assets to the Middle East and the appointment of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei as the Supreme Leader of Iran, what assessment they have made of the conflict in the region and the status of the UK’s security and diplomatic relationship with the United States.
My Lords, I beg to ask a Question of which I have given private notice, and I draw attention to my entry on the register of interests as an adviser to the Arab Ambassadors Council.
My Lords, we condemn Iran’s strikes on its neighbours. They are unacceptable and threaten regional stability. Keeping people safe and defending national security is the Government’s first duty, and we continually assess potential threats to the United Kingdom. We continue to have discussions at every level with the US and others. American planes operating out of British bases and British jets shooting down drones and missiles to protect American lives is the special relationship in action. The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as the new Supreme Leader suggests no change in direction from Iran.
My Lords, at a time when our Gulf partners are asking for de-escalation and diplomacy, and indeed the United States President has said that he does not require the UK’s intervention, we seem to be intervening and escalating. The Minister delved on the issue of national security, but what is the stated objective of His Majesty’s Government when it comes to resolving this conflict specifically? The Minister referred to the use of UK bases; bearing in mind the Prime Minister’s stated objective that our intervention is defensive and that the US is carrying out a military intervention that is offensive, how does she square those two key strategic objectives?
We want to see a swift conclusion to this conflict; that is in the interests of our Gulf partners, and they are very clear what they would like to see. We are involved in a defensive capacity, as the noble Lord says, because British lives and the lives of our allies and partners are at risk.
My Lords, what assessment has been made of the impact of the conflict on BBC Persian staff based in London? What can His Majesty’s Government do to help their security and safety?
Any threats to BBC Persian service staff in London or anywhere else—but certainly any threats in this country—are completely unacceptable, and our security services and the police work hard to keep them safe. One of the atrocious things about the Iranian regime is the way it has sought to act in the way it has against journalists and those wishing to report the truth about what is happening in Iran.
My Lords, one of the consequences of the conflict has been President Trump seeming to clear India and other countries to break sanctions and buy Russian oil, which clearly changes the balance of the economy in the Ukraine war. Does the Minister agree that any political party, particularly His Majesty’s Opposition, which chooses unequivocally to support Donald Trump, is absolutely supporting this policy and letting Ukraine down?
The noble Lord is right in that all these conflicts are interconnected in many subtle ways that often are not immediately obvious to those seeking to make political points in this country. It is obviously a matter for His Majesty’s Opposition to answer for their own conduct.
My Lords, in 2003 the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, met the chiefs of staff just before the invasion of Iraq and we discussed our plan of action. At that meeting, we asked: what is the plan for phase 4? We were told by the Prime Minister that the Americans had phase 4 all in hand. As regards beating a country such as Iraq or Iran in conventional fighting, we can do that—we jolly well should be able to do that—but the difficult bit is the next bit. I ask my noble friend the Minister: have we actually asked the Americans what their plan is now and where we are actually going? This is the most dangerous part of any of these actions.
I think we all remember the experience from 2003 and the decisions made around Iraq. Somebody who fought in Iraq—a Member of Parliament, Calvin Bailey, who was a wing commander in the RAF—said to me last week that there were two things that the British Government need to bear in mind before they take such a decision again: one is the legality and the other is what happens next. I think he is right. As a mother of boys of fighting age, I do not want to have to look into the eyes of anybody else’s mother and say that we had not done our work adequately ahead of making such a decision ever again.
My Lords, sadly, it was universally acknowledged that this conflict was more likely to occur than less likely, with predictable consequences for British interests in the region. May I ask the Minister: why was our military response so tardy and so incomplete?
I just do not accept that that is the case. We are just over a week into this conflict. Decisions were made rapidly at the outset. The initial request was declined—as is well recorded and well discussed—for reasons that have been explained, and I refer the noble Baroness to my answer to the previous question, which I hope explains why. The decision now is around defensive activity, and I think that that is the right position for the UK to take at this point.
My Lords, obviously the first duty is the protection of citizens, but what steps are the Government taking to help protect cultural property in Iran and the wider region? Iran, Israel and the USA are all signatories to the 1954 Hague convention, but UNESCO world heritage sites have already been damaged, and many museums are at risk during this conflict.
I am an archaeology graduate and I completely understand why the noble Earl asks that question. He is right to draw our attention to this. It is tragic that, alongside women and children, the cultural heritage in many conflict zones suffers. It becomes a target because adversaries understand just how fundamental many of these sites are to the identity of a particular population. So I thank the noble Earl for drawing attention to this.
My Lords, can I press the Minister a little on her definition of “defensive operations”, given what the Deputy Prime Minister said at the weekend? Does “defensive operations” encompass using British weapons and bases proactively to take out Iranian missile-launching sites that could be used to target British military assets and British military personnel?