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Middle East

My Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend Lady Symons for her congratulations, which I will readily convey to James Watt. I have spoken to him, as noble Lords can imagine. He and his team are doing exceptional work around the clock. The consular team manning the switchboards in London is taking about 700 calls an hour, and it, too, has been doing that in 24-hour shifts. Everybody is working exceptionally hard, as you would expect them to, but I thank and congratulate them. On who is talking to whom, I do not think that there is a modification of view. The Government’s position remains that we do not seek to talk to organisations that have espoused terrorism and argued that Israel should be wiped off the face of the map. That is their position, which is why we will not talk to them. They can remedy that very easily, and should do so. It is obviously important through intermediaries to try to find ways of getting some sort of discussion going. It is likely that intermediaries will have a greater impact on them than we might, particularly the Egyptian Government, who seem to have those links. I say cautiously, because I say it out of partial ignorance, that I do not think they have the same links with Hezbollah as they do with Hamas, but, none the less, there are those who do. The organisation should release all the Israeli soldiers it holds. It should desist from violence and the Israelis should act proportionately.