Results 1-20 of 51 for iraq speaker:Malcolm Rifkind

Bills Presented: Afghanistan and Pakistan (16 Jul 2009) has video

Malcolm Rifkind: ...presented in a way that makes public concern greater than it need be. I think that the British public are pretty robust about Afghanistan. The situation is very different from the one in respect of Iraq. The nation was not divided about the intervention in Afghanistan, and questions of legitimacy have never been a serious issue. There was confusion at first, when the British and American...

Opposition Day — [14th allotted day]: Iraq Inquiry (24 Jun 2009) has video

Malcolm Rifkind: ...on whether evidence will be given on oath, because that is the only basis on which anyone would wish to be accompanied by a lawyer. When I gave evidence to the Scott inquiry on so-called arms to Iraq, I did not find it necessary to be represented by a lawyer. The idea that lawyers are necessary if there is a public inquiry is not remotely correct. As we have heard, the Prime Minister then...

Royal Assent: Defence in the UK (26 Mar 2009) has video

Malcolm Rifkind: ...wars that we found ourselves in were ones in which either we or our allies had been attacked. War therefore became necessary, because no other option was available. However, the wars in Kosovo and Iraq were wars of choice, and the same is true of what happened in Sierra Leone: even though that was a very small combat operation, it was still a war of choice on the Government's part. I...

Opposition Day — [9th Allotted Day]: Iraq War Inquiry (25 Mar 2009) has video

Malcolm Rifkind: ...Government have chosen for their amendment, which talks not about the return of our troops, but says that it would be inappropriate to have an inquiry "whilst important operations are underway in Iraq to support the people and government of Iraq."? As it is the Government's intention to help the people in government in Iraq over the next few years, does that not imply that the Government...

Bills Presented: Iraq: Future Strategic Relationship (14 Jan 2009) has video

Malcolm Rifkind: The Government have chosen as the title of the debate Britain's "future strategic relationship" with Iraq. Will the Secretary of State confirm that in fact we will not have a strategic relationship with Iraq? A strategic relationship would normally imply an ongoing defence commitment or something comparable. There will be some support for naval training, but otherwise we hope that our...

Bills Presented: Iraq: Future Strategic Relationship (14 Jan 2009) has video

Malcolm Rifkind: ...that I have not yet heard the rest of his speech, but I have reread the statement that the Prime Minister gave to the House on similar themes on 18 December. He said that our relationship with Iraq would be "the realisation of a normal defence relationship, similar to those we have with our other key partners in the region".—[ Official Report, 18 December 2008; Vol. 485, c. 1235.]...

Points of Order: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights (13 Oct 2008) has video

Malcolm Rifkind: ...power to deal with human rights abuse. The two major areas where the British Government, the United States Government and a number of other countries have sought to implement such a policy are Iraq and Kosovo. The road to Baghdad began in Belgrade. Serious consequences arose from the situation in Kosovo that were never part of the Government's policy. They achieved two things by their...

Points of Order: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights (13 Oct 2008) has video

Malcolm Rifkind: .... There are four reasons. First, when people go in, particularly with regime change in mind, they create a political vacuum. Once that happens, they cannot control what emerges. When we went into Iraq, it was no part of western, or coalition, policy that Shi'a and Sunni sectarianism would grow dramatically and become the dominant force in Iraqi politics, yet it should have been anticipated...

Points of Order: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights (13 Oct 2008) has video

Malcolm Rifkind: ...a whole range of other options available. I do not just mean economic sanctions or diplomatic pressure, but options involving military means. When I was in government, we imposed a no-fly zone on Iraq. We stopped Iraq persecuting the Kurds. We were able to stop it persecuting the Shi'a. Saddam Hussein had no control over his own airspace. He was emasculated as a power that could show...

Points of Order: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights (13 Oct 2008) has video

Malcolm Rifkind: ...that she is a member of a Government that for their first 10 years, under Tony Blair, made a virtue of arguing that military means would have to be used from time to time, such as in Kosovo and Iraq, either to promote democracy or for regime change. Should the House interpret the absence of even the slightest reference to that in her speech as she approaches her concluding remarks as...

Opposition Day — [8th Allotted Day]: Iraq Inquiry (25 Mar 2008) has video

Malcolm Rifkind: ...Democrat spokesman, the hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr. Davey), said that the Prime Minister had missed an opportunity, when he came to office, to try to distance himself from the Iraq war by initiating an inquiry. Although one would have liked to see the Prime Minister do that, it was never really on the cards. The Prime Minister is as involved as Tony Blair was. During that...

Opposition Day — [8th Allotted Day]: Iraq Inquiry (25 Mar 2008) has video

Malcolm Rifkind: ...of staff to the Government, who makes it clear that the Government in no way planned for or understood the possibility of a sectarian conflict or internal civil war being likely to break out in Iraq if a war took place. Is that not precisely why we need to have an inquiry? Today's events in Basra demonstrate the inadequacy of the Government's preparation for one of the worst conflicts for...

Opposition Day — [8th Allotted Day]: Iraq Inquiry (25 Mar 2008) has video

Malcolm Rifkind: ...was not the morale of troops in Basra that was of concern to him, but the fact that senior Ministers and diplomats would be distracted from the priorities of dealing with the ongoing situation in Iraq. He knows perfectly well that not a single senior Minister, ambassador or senior civil servant who was responsible for Iraq five years ago currently has responsibilities for Iraq, so how can...

Deferred Division: Treaty of Lisbon (No. 5) (20 Feb 2008)

Malcolm Rifkind: ...past 10 years, any of the most fundamental matters on which British policy diverged from that of most of our European colleagues would have been affected. Rightly or wrongly, we went to war over Iraq. Britain would not have been prevented from carrying out that policy if any of the powers had been in force at the time. Policy on Kosovo divided Europe 10 years ago as it does today, but...

Business of the House (Lisbon Treaty) (No. 4): Treaty of Lisbon (No. 5) — [5th allotted day] (20 Feb 2008)

Malcolm Rifkind: ...EU statement on Kosovo showed "clear political leadership" by the European Union was absurd? The issue of Kosovo showed the deepest division on a common foreign policy issue since the divisions on Iraq. He does no service to the genuine desire for European co-operation when he describes a failure to achieve European agreement as if it were a success.

Orders of the Day: European Union (Amendment) Bill (21 Jan 2008) has video

Malcolm Rifkind: ...British policy in the most crucial matters, which affect our national interest? If the terms had been in effect some years ago, would we have been unable—for good or ill—to go to war in Iraq against the wishes of most of the other countries of Europe? Would we have been able to defend our interests in the Falkland Islands or pursue our policy on other aspects of foreign policy?...

Opposition Day — [14th Allotted Day]: Iraq Inquiry (11 Jun 2007)

Malcolm Rifkind: May I begin by referring to an interest, declared in the Register, in a company that operates in Iraq? I support very strongly the proposal for an inquiry made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague), because the Prime Minister has shown that essentially he is still in denial about the policy over which he has presided for the past few years. On several occasions,...

Opposition Day — [14th Allotted Day]: Iraq Inquiry (11 Jun 2007)

Malcolm Rifkind: The Foreign Secretary says that she is unhappy with the idea of an inquiry while British troops remain in Iraq. She will be aware that it is widely assumed that even if the vast majority of British troops are withdrawn over the next 12 months, it is highly likely that a significant number will remain to carry out training functions or for other purposes, possibly for several years. Is she...

Opposition Day — [11th Allotted Day]: Armed Conflict (Parliamentary Approval) (15 May 2007)

Malcolm Rifkind: ...about the change. I will support it, for reasons I will come to in a moment, but I take no particular pleasure in doing so. I have in mind not only the continuing controversies over the Iraq war—and the feeling shared by many people that they were let down by the Government in the projection of the case for war to both Parliament and the country—but the Kosovo conflict....

Opposition Day — [11th Allotted Day]: Armed Conflict (Parliamentary Approval) (15 May 2007)

Malcolm Rifkind: .... We must not tie their hands too much. I shall make only two additional points, as I do not want to detain the House much longer. The first is that the motion asking the House to approve the Iraq war was incredibly complex. I have it here: debated on 18 March 2003, the motion was 32 lines long—a massive attempt to justify what the Government had in mind. A danger arises when it...