Crispin Blunt

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Conservative MPs in Middle East

Crispin Blunt, Tobias Ellwood and Brooks Newmark issue joint press release from the Conservative Middle East Council

The President of Lebanon, Emile Lahoud, today met the three Conservative MPs visiting the region on behalf of the Conservative Middle East Council. Crispin Blunt, Tobias Ellwood and Brooks Newmark have had meetings with senior political figures from across the political spectrum in Lebanon and Syria and have seen for themselves the damage done to Lebanon in the recent conflict. Their aim has been to engage with politicians and thinkers and to foster greater understanding between Britain and Syria and Lebanon.

Welcoming the MPs in Beirut on Tuesday the Lebanese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, stressed the importance of a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory. This message was reinforced across the complex web of political alliances in Lebanon, most vocally by the elected representatives of Hezbollah. Later on Tuesday afternoon the three MPs visited southern Beirut, the former Hezbollah headquarters, which was flattened by Israeli air-strikes. Yesterday the delegation crossed the Litani River and toured the area in which Israeli infantry had engaged Hezbollah militia. They also visited the Palestinian refugee camp at Shatila.

Crispin Blunt was pleased to see that David Cameron’s recent speech on foreign affairs had been warmly received: “It has not escaped the notice of our hosts in Syria and Lebanon that attitudes to foreign policy are changing in Britain. David Cameron’s approach to these issues has been warmly received, in marked contrast to the anger at Tony Blair’s failure to call for a cease-fire.”

The scale of the devastation of southern Lebanon appalled all three. Beyond the visible destruction the fields in southern Lebanon are strewn with unexploded cluster bombs which it will take years to clear – indeed on the day of the visit three people were killed treading on unexploded bombs. Israel is charged with dropping these on the last days of the conflict as an act of collective punishment to prevent the harvest. The deaths and economic hardship that have and will continue to follow will only reap hatred and bitterness.

Speaking at the site of the Qana massacre Tobias Ellwood, whose brother was killed in the Bali bombing, spoke of how moving it was to see the shrines to the dead: “Although we all saw the impact of Israeli air-strikes on television, seeing it directly brings it home. The photographs o fthe women and children killed at Qana remind us that there are real people dying not just numbers. The death of innocents is eloquent testimony to need to find better policies. It is clear that, despite the huge amount of damage done, Israel’s policy has failed. The spirit of the Lebanese is undimmed and Hezbollah have never been more popular.”

In both Syria and Lebanon one message was impressed upon the delegation at every turn: that peace in the region would only follow resolution of the Palestinian/Israeli question. Crispin Blunt repeated this point at a seminar on Wednesday evening: “Whatever the other challenges that face the Middle East, in Iraq, with Iran or here in Lebanon, until the injustice done to Palestinians over the last sixty years is addressed real progress will be delayed indefinitely.”

Lebanon is home to some 400,000 Palestinian refugees. Speaking in Shatila Camp, site of the infamous massacre of 1982, Brooks Newmark spoke of the need to understand the issues at first hand: “For me this brief visit has been a journey. I think it so important for MPs to inform themselves at first hand of these issues and although we have seen a great deal I am conscious of the huge complexity that underlies politics in the Middle East. I am alarmed by UN forces’ failure to identify the scale of Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal before the war and hope Hezbollah now face up to the requirement to become a wholly political movement without a military wing. It is not clear that the reinforced UNIFIL has the mandate, the Lebanese Army the authority or Israel the willingness to leave all of Lebanon, including Shebaa Farms, to enable this to happen.”

Crispin Blunt is the Chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council, whose objective is to improve Conservative MPs’ understanding of the issues in the Middle East and to help build relations between Britain and the region.