UK parliament to hold inquiry into Middle East peace process

The Foreign Affairs Committee will examine the UK’s policy towards the Middle East peace process in new inquiry announced on Sunday.

The statement notes that 2017 is a year containing “at least three anniversaries that are significant for the issue: one hundred years since the Balfour Declaration, seventy years of United Nations commitment to a two-state solution, and fifty years since the war of June 1967.”

These anniversaries, “and a contemporary context of shifting diplomatic initiatives both within the region and among world powers,” are the context for the inquiry, in order “to examine how UK policies towards this issue are formed, the steps the UK has taken to fulfil them and recommendations for future policy.”

Chair Crispin Blunt MP (Conservative) said that the committee “will consider the historic and systemic issues that constitute such stubborn obstacles to peace.”

“This context includes on-going issues of violence and incitement, internal divisions, and settlement expansion – all set within the context of Britain’s relations with the various parties to the conflict and its efforts to help them overcome these obstacles.”

The inquiry will examine “the evolving diplomatic context, including the UK’s position in response to the policies of the new US administration, the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 2334, and the partnership with the European Union in supporting peace as we begin the Brexit process.”

Blunt added: “I would like us to scrutinise the Government’s engagement with the recent efforts of both France and the Obama administration, in support of the peace process.”

The senior Tory MP also noted that while “the Government may have formally closed the issue of [disgraced Israeli diplomat] Shai Masot”, the inquiry will also consider “the way that foreign states and interested parties seek to influence UK policy.”

The final date for the submission of written evidence is 30 March 2017.