Due to the late King’s ill health at the time, the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia did not attend the Counter ISIL meeting in London as had been planned. Instead, I raised the case of Raif Badawi with the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to London, as the most senior member of the Saudi delegation, at the inaugural meeting of the Small Group of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, on 22 January.

The Core Group of the Friends of Syria countries (UK, USA, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and United Arab Emirates – also known as the London 11) meets at regular intervals at both senior official and ministerial level. The UK is a leading member and the group most recently met at senior official level on 10 November 2014 in London. There are currently no fixed plans for a next meeting but the group will reconvene when it is appropriate to do so. The group remains committed to helping end the long-running Syrian crisis.

The UK remains committed to the stability and security of Iraq. To date we have provided substantial support to the Iraqi government and Kurdish authorities to combat the ISIL threat, including airstrikes, Intelligence, surveillance and targeting support, training and lethal and non-lethal military equipment.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) submit formal requests for assistance to the international coordination cell in Erbil, the Organisation for Security Cooperation Iraq (OSC-I), on a weekly basis.

We continue to look at ways in which we can support Kurdish forces, in coordination with the federal government of Iraq, and consider additional requests for equipment or training as they are received.

The UK has made no direct representations to the government of Russia on this issue. We strongly support recent comments made by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Secretary General Stoltenberg calling on Russia to obey the norms of international air traffic. On 2 December NATO Foreign Ministers also agreed on the need to maintain contact through NATO/Russia military channels to help ensure that Russian military flights, or naval activities, do not give rise to unintended accidents or escalation.

The total number of UK civilian staff in Afghanistan, excluding security and logistics personnel, will reduce from approximately 180 staff at present to approximately 110 staff by 2015.

We had regular discussions with Hadi al-Bahra, while he was President of the Syrian National Coalition, most notably through the UK Special Representative for Syria. The UK Special Representative last met President al-Bahra on 18 December. I held detailed discussions with President al-Bahra on the situation in Syria when they met in London on 10 November 2014. All of these discussions covered the humanitarian situation throughout the whole of Syria as well as UK support to the Syrian opposition and the wider political process.

The Department for International Development have already responded to the urgent needs of Syrian refugees that have fled from Kobane to Turkey, by working with the relevant authorities and our partners to provide mattresses, non-food items and shelter for distribution to the most needy families. We stand ready to respond positively should further aid be needed.

As the Prime Minister made clear to President Putin at the G20 meeting in Brisbane, unless Russia follows through on its obligations, and we see real progress towards peace in Ukraine, with full respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, additional sanctions could be imposed. We are working with partners on contingency plans for that eventuality.

Sanctions are an important element in the range of diplomatic measures we are undertaking to effect a change in Russia’s behaviour. EU sanctions against Russia are regularly reviewed. Most recently, on 18 December, the Council of the European Union expanded the scope of sanctions in Crimea and Sevastopol, and on 4 December sectoral sanctions against Russian companies were revised.

I have regular discussions with the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs on the EU’s strategy to tackle ISIL, both bilaterally and directly in EU meetings. Conclusions of EU meetings are available on EU websites.

We are concerned by continued breaches of the ceasefire which was agreed in Minsk on 5 September and urge all parties to implement the Minsk Protocol in full so peace and stability can return to eastern Ukraine. Russia’s actions - troop movements, further convoys without the permission of the Ukrainian government, and Russia’s respect for the results of illegitimate separatist elections - are unacceptable. These actions have increased tensions in Ukraine and further call into question the sincerity of Russia’s commitment to de-escalate tensions and fulfill commitments they made in Minsk and elsewhere.

My officials in Erbil, Baghdad and London discuss the conflict against ISIL with representatives of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on a regular basis.

I last discussed this issue with KRG representatives during my visit to Erbil on 13 October in meetings with both KRG President Masoud Barzani and KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani.

The Minister for the Middle East, my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood), discussed this issue with the Head of the KRG’s Department for Foreign Relations, Mr Falah Mustafa, on Thursday 11 December.

In the current financial year, the UK has allocated £27 million of non-humanitarian aid to support the work of the National Coalition and Interim Government, local councils, non-government organisations, civil society, media and human rights activists in Syria. We are providing a range of support to Syrians to help save lives, bolster civil society, counter extremism, promote human rights and accountability, deliver basic governance and help lay the foundations for a more peaceful and inclusive future for Syria.

As part of this, in the past 12 months the Government has provided £2.3 million in support for local governance in opposition-controlled areas in Syria. This funding has enabled the training of local officials to help them ensure the provision of essential services to ordinary Syrians in their towns and villages, including vital infrastructure repair and rehabilitation projects which meet the needs of local people. We plan for this project to continue for at least one more year. The UK is committed to helping the Syrian people who continue to suffer after more than three years of conflict.

DFID is providing £48 million through its Girls Education Challenge Fund to enable some 180,000 girls in some of the poorest rural and hard to reach areas of Afghanistan to have better access to a quality education.

In addition to this funding the UK supported the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF), a World-Bank managed multi-donor fund, a proportion of which is used to support education.

In 2012/13 there were more than 2.5 million Afghan girls attending school compared to virtually no girls at school in 2001.

The British Government is determined to make rapid progress on implementation of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2170, to prevent illicit finance reaching any groups associated with Al Qaeda or ISIL, and on UNSCR 2178 to tackle the flow of foreign fighters. In doing so, the UK is working with like-minded partners. The Qatari authorities share our belief that ISIL needs to be defeated, including through denying it access to funding. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood) discussed these issues with the Qatari Foreign Minister, Dr Khalid Al Attiyah, during his recent visit to Doha on 12 November. He welcomed their efforts to tackle terrorist financing through the introduction of a Charities Commission to prevent abuse of charities, and look to them to work with us on this agenda in the future.

The Government remains committed to reopening the British Embassy in Tehran once we have resolved the outstanding steps required to bring the Embassy back to a functional level and made progress on arrangements for re-establishing a visa service in Tehran. We are in ongoing discussion with the Iranian government to identify solutions on both issues.

The Government remains committed to reopening the British Embassy in Tehran once we have resolved the outstanding steps required to bring the Embassy back to a functional level and made progress on arrangements for re-establishing a visa service in Tehran. We are in ongoing discussion with the Iranian government to identify solutions on both issues.

The Government remains committed to reopening the British Embassy in Tehran once we have resolved the outstanding steps required to bring the Embassy back to a functional level and made progress on arrangements for re-establishing a visa service in Tehran. We are in ongoing discussion with the Iranian government to identify solutions on both issues.