1961 … Kuwait … Iraqi Crisis.

In just the past six months, we have had not only the Iraqi Crisis, which the House has just examined, but major developments in Bosnia, with the closure of the border by President Milosevic, the historic developments in Northern Ireland and the necessity to send certain forces to Rwanda.

The Iraqi Crisis has shown us two things.

As a nation which took such an active part in the Recent Iraqi Crisis, we must use the strength that we now have to insist that the UN strengthens its position on such topics.

Judging by what I heard in Washington last week, it appears that Kofi Annan' s intervention in the Iraqi Crisis has upset and angered many gung-ho Republican Congressmen.

They were perhaps characterised by Trenchard's policy of air control, which those following the Iraqi Crisis will understand.

The spoken volumes of threats, often at high decibel levels, have nevertheless been the more dominant features of recent weeks, even months, as the Iraqi Crisis has unfolded.

I am glad to take this opportunity to say that my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has played an excellent role in ensuring that the Iraqi Crisis is dealt with in the United Nations and that it is kept firmly anchored there.

"Let me again briefly recapitulate the history of the Iraqi Crisis.

Can the Government take into account the alarming divergent diplomatic postures of leading EU members, namely France and Germany, on the Iraqi Crisis; and does that not call into question the principles of ever closer union, as enunciated in the Maastricht treaty, on which the Convention is based?

So can Ministers continue to urge the new government in Jerusalem to reaffirm their wobbling commitment to the goal of a Palestinian state, and can they urge the Americans not to delay too long in taking new initiatives in line with the road map rather than holding off on the road map until the Iraqi Crisis is over, whenever that may be?

If, God forbid, force proves to be necessary in the Iraqi Crisis, the same will be true in this case.

As I said at the start of the Present Iraqi Crisis, it is inconceivable that any Government could commit their troops to action without the support of Parliament.

Self-defence in that way does not arise in the Current Iraqi Crisis.

Wherever we end up with the Iraqi Crisis, I hope that the Government will take the opportunity, when things calm down, to review the way in which the UN has operated so as to find out whether any lessons can be learned.

Mr. Griffiths: I recognise my right hon. Friend's desire for a peaceful outcome to Iraq's compliance with United Nations Security Council resolutions, so will he accept that Indonesia—the largest Muslim nation in the world and emerging from dictatorship to take on the virtues of democracy and tolerance, but the victim of extremist Islamic international terrorism in Bali last October—desperately needs a peaceful outcome to the present 286 Iraqi Crisis, and support from the United Kingdom Government for its reform programme and in combating extremist Islamic terrorists?

I recognise my right hon. Friend's desire for a peaceful outcome to Iraq's compliance with United Nations Security Council resolutions, so will he accept that Indonesia - the largest Muslim nation in the world and emerging from dictatorship to take on the virtues of democracy and tolerance, but the victim of extremist Islamic international terrorism in Bali last October - desperately needs a peaceful outcome to the Present Iraqi Crisis, and support from the United Kingdom Government for its reform programme and in combating extremist Islamic terrorists?

During the next few weeks our humanitarian response to the Iraqi Crisis will be as important as our military one.

To regain its status, the UN will have to show itself ready to tackle, multilaterally, an Iraqi Crisis on which the USA and the UK have made a start.

Some would say that they were like politicians: I confess readily that one did not pay enough attention to the minutiae and details of the activities of the UN until the shock effect of United States intransigence, when the Iraqi Crisis developed in the Security Council.

So can the Prime Minister give the House his current assessment - and that of the Government - of the willingness and intent of the current Iranian regime to play a constructive rather than a divisive role in helping to resolve the Iraqi Crisis?

I had a chance to go to Irbil, where I met, among others, Christian minorities who had been persecuted and caught up in the Iraqi Crisis and the territorial gains that Daesh was making in Iraq at the time.