Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the government of Iran on the blocking by Hezbollah of humanitarian access to civilian areas in Syria in the last six months.

The Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), has discussed the situation in Syria, including the humanitarian crisis, with the Iranian government on numerous occasions, including during Foreign Minister Zarif and President Rouhani’s Chief of Staff’s bilateral visits to London. The UK and Iran are part of the International Syria Support Group’s Humanitarian and Ceasefire Taskforces, which aim to tackle the issue of humanitarian access across all besieged and hard to reach locations in Syria. We continue to urge all parties in Syria to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law.