Iran
Debate between Hamish Falconer and Kirsty Blackman(1 week, 4 days ago)
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Mr Falconer
I thank my hon. Friend for her question. I want to see this legislation enacted as soon as possible. It is Home Office legislation, and it will need to go through the House in the usual way, but we are treating it as a matter of urgency. As the House has heard, the reason that the Jonathan Hall review is important is that it addresses itself precisely to the question of the difference between a state actor and a terrorist. I was the head of the terrorism response team in the Foreign Office and I know the difference in threat profile between an actor that is state-based and one that is not. That it is why it is important that we get this legislation right.
Kirsty Blackman (Aberdeen North) (SNP)
There is a very real human cost to the violence used by the Iranian authorities. As many as 6,000 protesters—people like me and you, Mr Speaker—have been killed and murdered and more than 10,000 have been arrested. There is a real risk of extrajudicial execution. Political prisoners, including children, are being tortured in prison. Will the Government reassure us that they are having conversations with the US authorities ahead of the US-Iran talks, and making it clear to them that the lives and safety of those protesters, particularly the ones who are currently in prison, is of immense importance in the negotiations as they go forward?
Mr Falconer
I can confirm that we are in regular contact with our US counterparts and others on all of those questions.
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Debate between Hamish Falconer and Kirsty Blackman(8 months, 1 week ago)
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Mr Falconer
I thank my hon. Friend, who has raised these issues with me many times and is very focused on them. I completely agree with what he says. Aid must be delivered in a principled way. That is vital not just in the middle east, but across the entire world. We take these issues very seriously, and we raise them with force with the Israeli Government.
Kirsty Blackman (Aberdeen North) (SNP)
In 10, 20 or 50 years, none of us wants to look back and say that we could have done more. As of December, there were 191 licences for the export of military equipment to Israel. Fewer than half of them were for the IDF and the Israeli Government. What comfort does the Minister have that the military equipment going to Israel is not being used to expand settlements on the west bank, is not being used by the civilian staff working at aid centres, and is not being used to worsen the situation for the Palestinian people?
Mr Falconer
I thank the hon. Member for that important question. We take these issues very seriously. Our arms export licensing criteria and systems are among the toughest in the world, and we work very carefully to ensure that the words that the Foreign Secretary, the Prime Minister and I say at this Dispatch Box are followed all the way through, in every decision that we make. In some cases, it is absolutely obvious from the licence that the exports could not be used in the way that the hon. Member describes—for example, components for submarines cannot be used in Gaza—but we do take enormous care over these questions.