Numerous Conservative MPs raised concerns about the threat of Lebanese Shiite terror group Hezbollah to Israel and the Middle East, in Foreign Office Questions this week.
Minister for the Middle East, Dr Andrew Murrison MP, condemned Hezbollah for “seeking to amass illegal weapons and arms and for putting the security of Lebanon and Israel at risk”.
CFI Parliamentary Chairman (Commons), Rt. Hon. Stephen Crabb MP said that “Hezbollah is arguably the most successful export to come out of revolutionary Iran”. He asked: “Does the Minister share my serious concern that we are talking not just about Hezbollah but about the presence of the Revolutionary Guard of Iran in Syria today? Does he share my serious concerns about the new threat this poses on the northern borders of Israel?”
Chair of the Education Select Committee, Rt. Hon. Robert Halfon MP said he strongly welcomed the Government’s decision to proscribe Hezbollah in full in February, but added: “Israel recently revealed that it has exposed Hezbollah cells in border villages on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights”.
He asked whether the Minister shared his “grave concern and agree that were the Golan Heights to be under Syrian control, the security risk would be catastrophic, not only for Israel but for the entire region”.
Victoria Prentis MP asked the Minister “what more we are doing to confront people in this country who encourage the group’s terrorism?”
The Middle East Minister underlined in response that “we have proscribed Hezbollah, so it will not be able to demonstrate and spread its message of hate, contrary to the interests and values of this country”.
He added: “I do not think we could have done much more, immediately, to make it clear that the organisation is beyond the law and that people who campaign for or show support for it are committing a criminal act”.
Philip Hollobone MP asked a question bout Hamas’s misuse of money. He said: “While unemployment in Gaza is at 50% and two thirds of Gazans live in poverty, over half of Hamas’s budget goes on military expenditure”.
The Kettering MP emphasised: “Would not the lives of civilians in Gaza be improved, and the prospects for the peace process enhanced, were Hamas to spend its money, time and effort on the civilian population, rather than on building up its rocket arsenal?”
