Middle East

Michael Dugher Excerpts

Monday 14th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

That is a valuable point. I hope that we can do more in the cultural area as we work with that country in the coming months. I hope that we can do more in promoting not only civil society and the building blocks of democracy, but educational and cultural co-operation. That is part of our programme for elevating relationships throughout the middle east, so we will attend to that in this case as well.

[Michael Dugher (Barnsley East) (Lab)]

The Foreign Secretary last week visited a number of non-democracies for reasons that we understand and that he has set out before the House, but does he feel that in that context, with the benefit of hindsight, it was helpful, sensitive or even fair to describe the democratic state of Israel as belligerent?

[Mr Hague]

I think it right to warn against belligerent language on all sides in this situation and not to describe any country as belligerent, but to warn against that and call for a reinvigoration of the peace process. I think that that was widely appreciated and perfectly well understood in the region.