UK Parliament / Open data

Situation in the Gulf

Proceeding contribution from Chris Bryant (Labour) in the House of Commons on Monday, 22 July 2019. It occurred during Ministerial statement on Situation in the Gulf.

I, too, warmly commend the work of the right hon. Member for Rutland and Melton (Sir Alan Duncan), although I think it is a bit over the top to resign from office just to avoid appearing before the Foreign Affairs Committee tomorrow afternoon.

On a serious point, the UK’s position on Iran has always been subtly different from that of the United States of America, even though it is our closest ally. It is partly because of our historical relations with ancient Persia, but, more importantly, even on the night that George Bush declared Iran a member of the axis of evil, we were actually trying to send an ambassador to Tehran for the first time for many years, and the American position ended up scuppering that. Just how can we make sure, in the coming months, that while we maintain our strong alliance with the United States of America, we still maintain our independence of thought in relation to Iran?

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
663 c1129 
Session
2017-19
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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