This week in Foreign Office Questions, Middle East Minister Alistair Burt said that Israel “cannot be expected to find an accommodation with terrorist groups that seek an annihilation and the extinction of the country”.
Rt Hon Alistair Burt MP underlined: “If there is to be any progress in the future, Hamas’s position on Israel has to change”.
The Middle East Minister’s remarks followed questions from CFI’s Parliamentary Chairman in the House of Commons, Rt Hon Stephen Crabb MP, and CFI Vice-Chairman Rt Hon Theresa Villiers MP.
Mr Crabb asked Minister Burt: “Does my Right Honourable Friend agree that the single most important thing for both unlocking the peace process and bringing relief to the desperate lives of Palestinians in Gaza is for Hamas to renounce violence and terror, and turn its back on those ways?”
Ms Villiers said that Hamas is “the biggest roadblock to peace in the Middle East, frustrating the sincere efforts made by Israel to try to secure a peaceful future for the region”.
Minister Burt said the UK Government “urge a restraint on violence”, emphasising that “violence that comes from Gaza towards Israel is making negotiations very difficult”.
Read the full exchange here.
