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Global Security (Middle East)

Once again, it is a pleasure to follow the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the hon. Member for Ilford, South (Mike Gapes), who once again has led the Committee in producing a substantive and significant report in what must be the most complex and difficult area of foreign policy that we face. As the Committee Chairman said, following the Annapolis meeting, President Bush declared his hopes to achieve a settlement of the dispute between Israel and her neighbours this year. I think that most hon. Members would agree that, if he had made that commitment in the first year of his presidency, rather than in his last, it would have been infinitely better; it would, I believe, have saved many lives lost during the past eight years. However, I am sure that we all wish him well—together with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, and our former Prime Minister, Tony Blair—in their strenuous efforts to produce a settlement.