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Middle East

My Lords, I understand—I was not in St Petersburg—that a number of ideas were canvassed and a good deal of creative work was done before the final statement was produced. Those ideas were thought through by the Sherpa teams working in the background for the G8 leaders. The G8 statement was not just endorsed by the leaders, but endorsed with some enthusiasm. None of them felt that they had been knocked back or set back and it is worth noting that in their own press statements they expressed some enthusiasm for it. One of the key reasons for that enthusiasm is that as regards Lebanon and Gaza it is possible to see in the statement specific requirements expressed by G8 leaders, which, in my view, touch all the bases needed to stabilise the position. I will not go through them all because of time and other questions that noble Lords may wish to ask, but I strongly recommend that noble Lords look at the set of requirements that the G8 as the leading economies in the world placed on all the parties. I believe that noble Lords will see that the requirements are as strict and as stringent on both sides of the dispute as they should be in these circumstances.