Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent diplomatic steps he has taken to secure peace between Israel and Palestine.

At this highly sensitive time in the region, there is an urgent need to restart the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. We regularly press both parties to resume direct negotiations towards a two-state solution. I discussed the issue of the Middle East Peace Process with the Israeli Ambassador to the UK on 11 October and the Palestinian Foreign Minister on 24 November. We continue to believe the best way to achieve this is through substantive peace talks between the parties leading to a two-state solution based on well-known parameters. These parameters are 1967 borders with agreed land swaps, Jerusalem as the shared capital of both states, and a just, fair, agreed and realistic settlement for refugees.