The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Baroness Chapman of Darlington) (Lab)

I thank both noble Lords for their thoughtful contributions, and I agree with much of what has been said. The noble Earl started by talking about the ceasefire in Gaza. We very much welcome this and will do everything we can to support the path to peace. As both noble Lords said, this is an early stage in the process and there is a very long way to go. It is unlikely to be smooth and without disruption along the way, and we need to be ready for that and to have the determination to do whatever it takes to see this through. I was asked about the ISF and UK troops. It is not our intention that there should be UK troops. The Foreign Secretary said very clearly that that is not what we expect to happen, and there are many reasons for that. I was also asked about Hamas, which is an important question. It has long been the position of this Government and our predecessor Governments—and it will continue to be the position—that we consider Hamas to be a terrorist organisation. We therefore think that Hamas should have no role in the future of leadership in Palestine in any guise at all. I am going to Brussels tomorrow to meet Mr Mustafa to talk about how the Palestinian Authority takes that role in the future, and to make sure that it is properly equipped and has the capability to do that. We are not ready today, but it is important that the international community, as appropriate, comes together and provides that support. We have been doing that and we need to increase those efforts at the moment. Accepting the board of peace and all the other structures within the 20-point plan that we still need to work through, it is difficult to see how, in the longer term, you can have a Government of Palestine without the Palestinian Authority. Clearly, we keep the issue of arms sales under review. We are mindful of the decisions that our partners and allies make. We are at an early stage in the process and I would not rule out a change, but, at the moment, we need to monitor things and see how they progress. The return of hostages is absolutely vital. Those families have been through far too much and, tragic though it is, the bodies of their loved ones must be returned; we will continue to make the case for that to happen as soon as possible. The noble Lord, Lord Purvis, asked about the plan as well, and our position is that this is the best chance we have of achieving peace at the moment. I know that there is some scepticism, and it is not difficult to find things that are missing and elements that it would be good to see, but we are in a position where this is the plan that we have. It is the plan that we must all work as hard as we possibly can to make work. Where there are things that we can add to it, and things that would help and ways in which we can support it, that is what we must do. The noble Lord asks what we will do when the Government of Israel does not want, perhaps, to do some of the things that we would like them to do in relation to the plan. We need to have dialogue and discussion and take those issues as they come. We need to start from a position that, before this plan was agreed—very close to the moment when this plan was agreed—many of us were starting to lose most of our hope in relation to this. Yet the plan happened and the ceasefire happened. So we must proceed with a clear eye, but with the best intentions. What are we doing to support the Palestinian Authority? We are doing a great deal, including the work with Michael Barber, who many noble Lords will be familiar with. We continue to work with those in the Palestinian Authority and we have a very good relationship with them. I have met them many times, as has Minister Falconer and many others, and we will continue to do that. It has been a dreadful season for settler violence. It is the olive harvest season, and it has been some of the worst periods in terms of the volume and nature of violence that we have seen. I have met families in Palestine who have been forced to move many times, and their stories are devastating. We have used our sanctions regime to address this and we will continue to use that and other mechanisms, as the noble Lord would expect, to try to improve the situation of those living in Palestine. The noble Lord asked me about sanctions on Sudan. Yes, we use some sanctions in relation to Sudan. Noble Lords have heard me say many times that we do not comment on future designations. But that does not mean it is a waste of time to raise it in this House. It is important that, where noble Lords feel that they would like to see more action, they use these opportunities to encourage the Government and make that clear, because that affects our calculation and our thinking. It is important that we know that that is the view of parliamentarians. The issue of aid to Sudan was raised. There is an issue with the amount of aid, but really it is an issue of access. That is the problem. The restrictions that are placed on agencies, the registration requirements, the payments that are needed, the safety and the blocking of access are incredibly frustrating. I was asked about air drops. There are real problems with air drops and they are an absolute last resort. We do not know who the aid is going to. People have died when we dropped aid in this way in the past, and it is an incredibly expensive way of getting aid to a population we could reach easily over land, if only the warring parties would allow that to happen. We continue to argue, alongside Tom Fletcher and others—Tom Fletcher has been in Darfur this week and I am sure that this is one of the cases he will have been making—for the necessity of both sides, whatever else they cannot agree on, and there is plenty, to come to a position where they can allow access for humanitarian workers to operate safely. We have looked into the issue of British-made equipment, and we are incredibly concerned about any evidence of anything happening of that nature. As the noble Lord will know, we take pride in the robustness of our systems, and we take incredibly seriously any issues there may be with diversion. These have been investigated. The items included in the reports were items that were sold many years ago. They were not bullets or guns or anything like that; it was something to do with a car engine. Nevertheless, those things should not end up in Sudan. We continue to monitor this very closely, because we do not want anything that has come out of this country to be used to perpetrate the kinds of atrocities that we are seeing in Sudan. We will keep that closely monitored and we will, of course, investigate any evidence immediately. The noble Lord, Lord Purvis of Tweed, asked about the ICAI report. It was a very good report. I read it; it was a thoughtful, well-rounded piece of work. The policy choices on Sudan referred to in the report are not things that have happened recently, or even under this Government. The policy choices that we are making in relation to Sudan have not been related to budget, because we have not reduced our budget for Sudan. We have protected it, for reasons that noble Lords do not need me to explain. We will also make sure that we consider the money that is used to support the fast-growing numbers of people living on the borders of Sudan, in Chad, Egypt and South Sudan, who are being displaced as a result of this hideous conflict. The noble Lord asked what we were doing. He made a point about Statements only taking us so far and not having an impact on the ground; I have a lot of time for that opinion. We held a session of the Human Rights Council last week. The position on Sudan was agreed unanimously, which was encouraging. It is good. I was talking to a Minister from Chad to thank the Government of Chad for what they are doing. His view is very clear: the war is political, it needs to stop, and we can do all we want with refugees and aid but, until those warring parties stop and put down their arms, we will continue to face this hideous situation. The fact that we were able to pass something unanimously in Geneva serves to bring attention and focus to this conflict, because we will need all our partners and allies to bring their attention to Sudan, in the way that they did, in the end, with Gaza. We will need international pressure and an international response to make progress on bringing about peace in Sudan—so they do serve a purpose. I was also asked about impunity. We have the fact-finding mission that we support. We are supporting the ICC and local agencies to make sure that we have evidence and that we can seek those prosecutions which will be necessary very soon, I hope, to bring those responsible to justice.