Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to support steps to strengthen ties between Israel and its neighbours.

We warmly welcome the normalising of relations, and the strengthening of ties between Israel and its neighbours. We urge others across the region to follow the example of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. During his visit to Israel on 24 August, the Foreign Secretary met Prime Minister Netanyahu, Alternate Prime Minister and Defence Minister Gantz, and Foreign Minister Ashkenazi. They discussed normalisation of relations in the region, alongside a range of other bilateral, regional, security issues. The changing regional context and converging Arab and Israeli interests presents an opening and the UK strongly supports such moves.