Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the plans of the President-Elect of Brazil to move that country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on the UK foreign policy objective of achieving a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

We assess that moving the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem before a final status agreement would not help peace in the region. Our position on the status of Jerusalem is clear and long-standing: it should be determined in a negotiated settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and Jerusalem should ultimately be the shared capital of the Israeli and Palestinian states.