Skip to main content

Call for Evidence

The UK's engagement with the Middle East and North Africa

The UK has a significant and complex legacy in the Middle East and North Africa, a region offering substantial partnerships to the UK, but also facing challenges from the inter-relationships of states, internal complexities and threats to their stability resulting from geo-political rivalries, climate change and the actions of external forces and states.

The region continues to suffer from tensions generated by extremes of wealth both between and within countries, as well as long-standing conflicts like that between Israel and Palestine.

The effects of these regional challenges are not contained within the region, often turning into transnational and global challenges that affect the UK.

With long experience of the Middle East and North Africa, the UK is also in a position to help find workable solutions to these interrelated and seemingly intractable challenges, by sharing experiences and by cooperating with its partners, both in and outside the region.

The Committee welcomes written evidence on the following:

• What are the key challenges facing the countries of the Middle East and North Africa in the medium and long term and what implications do these have for UK foreign policy?

• What are the main countries in which the UK should focus its efforts within the region?

• What are the possibilities for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine and how can the UK engage with all the parties involved to help bring about a peaceful resolution of the conflict?

• How can the UK best perform its role as UN Security Council Penholder for Libya and for Yemen to achieve UN objectives for these two countries?

• How can the UK work with its allies to curb Iran’s nuclear programme and deter Iran from supporting terrorist groups and other hostile actions in the region?

• How can and should the UK engage with countries whose regimes do not respect human rights but who may be important for our resilience strategy, counter-terrorism efforts, economic growth and green-energy transition, or who may need humanitarian assistance?

• To what extent are terrorism and malign Private Military Companies affecting stability in the region?

• To what extent should the UK prioritise political stability over the advancement of democracy in its relations with countries in the region?

• How should the UK respond to the growing engagement of major powers like Russia, China, Turkey and India in the region?

• What are the prospects for the UK’s cooperation with allies such as the US and France in MENA? And for working with international organisations?

Your submission should:

  • be concise - if over 3,000 words, include a short summary as well
  • be presented in numbered paragraphs
  • include an introduction to you or your organisation and your reason for submitting evidence
  • not already be published

Submissions should be in malleable format such as MS Word (not PDFs) with no use of colour or logos. Guidance on submitting written evidence and data protection information is available here: Guidance on submitting written evidence.

Deadline for submissions

The deadline for written submissions is 23:59pm on Tuesday 31 October 2023. Written evidence may be submitted on the basis of anonymity (meaning that it will be published, but without your name), or in confidence (meaning that it won't be published at all). If you would like to submit evidence anonymously or in confidence, you will be able to select this option during the submission process. Please also state at the beginning of your evidence which of these you want to request, and tell us why.

For further guidance, you can contact fac@parliament.uk.

It is recommended that all submitters familiarise themselves with the Guidance on giving evidence to a Select Committee of the House of Commons which outlines particulars of word count, format, document size, and content restrictions.

Diversity

We encourage members of underrepresented groups to submit written evidence. We aim to have diverse panels of Select Committee witnesses and ask organisations to bear this in mind when we ask them to choose a representative. We are currently monitoring the diversity of our witnesses.

This call for written evidence has now closed.

Go back to The UK’s engagement with the Middle East and North Africa Inquiry