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Iran:
[LORDS ]
[Lord Goronwy-Roberts.] diplomatic and other moves, then the Foreign Secretary will be assured of the united support of this House and of another place.
Lord BANKS: My Lords, I, too, wish to join in thanking the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary for the State- ment that he has made this afternoon. We on these Benches have all along condemned as strongly as we could the holding of the hostages. We supported the Iran (Tem- porary Powers) Bill last week, though we had reservations about the effectiveness of sanctions, but we give a very high priority to the need for Western unity at the present time.
We recognise that the proposals announced in the Statement are a modest move towards full economic sanctions. I think I am right in saying that they fall considerably short of what would have been required by the vetoed United Nations resolution. They are limited of course because they affect only the contracts agreed after 4th November 1979, necessita- ting, as the Statement makes clear, the use of the 1939 Act, and not the Act which we passed last weck; though ot course that will be used as well.
I should like to conclude by asking three questions. Is it correct that trade between the Community and Iran has been running at a rate of about £500 million per month? Have the Government any estimate of what proportion of that trade is likely to be affected by these sanctions? Finally, do the Government expect any difficulty in distinguishing between a new contract and the renewal of an existing contract?
3.8 p.m.
Lord CARRINGTON: My Lords, first, I ought to apologise to your Lordships for not having been present in the House during the passage of the legislation last week. During the last eight days I have spent only three hours in this country, and it was not possible for those three hours to be at the same time as when the legisla- tion was being
being dealt with. I must apologise; but I have an idea of what went on.
The noble Lord, Lord Goronwy- Roberts, asked me what were the good signs. I believe that they are very mildly
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encouraging; I would not put it any higher than that. We have been disappointed over mildly encouraging signs so often in the past that I should not care to go into this aspect in any greater detail. However, we should at any rate be grateful to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. for the proposals that he has made, which meant starting again on the lines hat he tried previously. I am afraid that the signs were not sufficiently encouraging to enable the Nine Foreign Ministers truth- fully to say that there had been decisive progress towards the release of the hostages, and consequently it was decided that the sanctions should come on forth- with. Depending upon the drafting of the Orders in Council, we expect that this will occur probably some time this week. Of course there will be an opportunity for debate, as I explained to your Lordships in the original Statement.
The reason why the nine Foreign Ministers chose the date of 4th November 1979 is, I think, obvious to your Lordships. It was a logical and presentationally sensible date. It was the date upon which the hostages were taken in Terhan, and it seemed that if we were going to take action of this kind against the Iranian Government the date on which the hostages were taken was a suitable date to choose. But, of course, because the legislation which your Lordships passed last week is not in any sense retrospective, it will be necessary to use the 1939 legislation for those contracts between 4th November 1979 and today--and those, of course, are equally subject to the procedure that I outlined in the Statement that I made to your Lordships. We intend to set up a co-ordinating machinery among the Nine which, I hope, will bring about what the noble Lord wants to happen; and we are co-ordinating with the other countries. I think your Lordships will have seen that the Japanese have already come out and followed suit with proposals which are much the same as the Nine have proposed.
With regard to the questions asked by the noble Lord, Lord Banks, I probably ought to have the figures with me, but I am afraid I have not got them, or the breakdown of them, and I could not give them without notice; but I will certainly get them and write to the noble Lord. I think that we shall have to look more closely at the problems which arise between