Engagements

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister – in the House of Commons at 11:30 am on 15 March 2006.

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Photo of Tony Blair Tony Blair Prime Minister 11:30, 15 March 2006

I am afraid that I have to disagree with my hon. Friend. Let me just explain the circumstances in which we came to do this monitoring function. We did it under what was called the Ramallah agreement, entered into in 2002, whereby people who were charged with serious offences, including the assassination of Israeli politicians, would be kept in the detention centre and we would monitor their detention. The agreement on both sides, with Israel and with the Palestinian Authority, is that the Palestinians would take charge of the detention, but it would be independently monitored by us. That was the agreement brokered. We have kept to that agreement every inch of the way. We have done the independent monitoring. The breach has been because the proper detention procedures were not being observed on the Palestinian side. I stress to my hon. Friend that three months of saying to the Palestinian Authority, including, last week, directly to the president of the Palestinian Authority, "Look, this is a serious situation, you have to act", is evidence of our good faith, not our bad faith. I repeat to my hon. Friend, I think it is important that the message sent out from this country, is that we stand ready to take this process forward and to help in any way we can, but it has to be on the basis that agreements entered into are adhered to by everybody.