---

Middle East

My Lords, I shall first address the noble Lord’s point about settlements, which were also raised by the noble Lords, Lord Howell and Lord Wallace. We now have a negotiation process in which, building on the road map commitment to no new settlements from 2001 onwards, there is the possibility of addressing this issue in a root-and-branch way. That is the good news of Annapolis: talks have begun again, these issues are on the table and there is a possibility of negotiating them out, not just exchanging words about them indirectly and at second hand. I have no doubt that the Palestinian delegation to the talks will press for exactly the point the noble Lord makes. On the second issue, I can speculate only that there is engagement and engagement and that President Bush perhaps had in mind his predecessor, President Clinton, and President Clinton’s predecessor, President Carter, who took engagement to be an intense personal retreat with the leaders of all sides to a compound from which they did not emerge until they hoped they had an agreement. Perhaps President Bush is guarding against that kind of engagement. However, the fact that he hosted the talks today and that his Secretary of State, Secretary Rice, has been so engaged reflects the fact that we now, once more, have the very good news of real American leadership from the White House in this process.