Syria: Druze Community

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Thursday 17th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I am very happy to confirm that. These actions are destabilising and present great risk to the fragile, emerging peace that we hope can hold. There is a ceasefire from 3 am this morning; we welcome that and commend all those involved in bringing that about. But this is a very precarious situation we now find ourselves in. We are involved with the provision of humanitarian support.

I have met many Syrians who are refugees in the region. I understand their wish to return and their concerns about doing so. We are working to support them directly and also to support Governments in the region who have a role to play in supporting Syria as it goes through this very difficult period.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, I commend the Arab and Turkish efforts in the most immediate ceasefire, and I agree with the most recent comments of Secretary of State Rubio from the United States. Are we co-ordinating with all three of those parties with regard to this?

The Minister will recall that, when in Grand Committee we debated the wider exceptions to the sanctions on Syria, I voiced a degree of caution with regard to the UK lifting our sanctions in a very broad way, primarily because of the continuing sectarian violence, the conflict and the lack of territorial integrity that the Minister referred to. Can the Minister reassure the House that the UK is not providing funds or capability to any parts of the military of the Syrian Government that are currently, in effect, part of a belligerent force?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I welcomed the noble Lord’s concerns at the time; he was right to raise them. We were at the forefront of lifting sanctions at that point. I still think that was the right decision, because in order to get the stability and security that Syria needs and that we all want to see, it is important that the Government of Syria are able to do what is necessary to rebuild the economy there and support the strengthening of the state. That was the right decision at that point but, clearly, we keep all these issues under very close review. I confirm to the noble Lord that we work as closely as possible with our international partners, because, as he suggests, the stability of Syria is so important to the entire region.