asked Her Majesty’s Government:

What progress they can report, following the representations which they, together with other Governments or international organisations, have made concerning the release of the three Israeli soldiers captured in Lebanon and Gaza in 2006.

My Lords, along with our international partners, including the UN Secretary-General, we continue to call for the Israeli soldiers to be immediately and unconditionally released. We welcome the efforts of regional and international partners who are working to secure their release and have offered our assistance. We believe that the release of the Israeli soldiers would be an important step both for humanitarian reasons and for advancing the peace process.

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that Answer, with which I fully concur. Does he agree that the need for the return of these kidnapped soldiers is both real and symbolic? It is certainly real for their families and symbolically it would mark one of the first steps that we hope will be taken along the path to peace. Further, has my noble friend seen the leader in the Times today referring to these captive soldiers as such a valuable prize to the terrorists who captured them that it can be assumed that they are still alive and that Hezbollah is in effect preparing for the next war, which it would initiate? In those circumstances, will my noble friend give the House an assurance that efforts to obtain the release of these soldiers will continue as energetically as possible?

My Lords, I can certainly give that assurance. We and our international partners are working hard towards an outcome which I believe would considerably assist the peace process. In his latest report on Security Council Resolution 1701, the UN Secretary-General raised his concerns about Hezbollah re-arming, particularly across the Syria-Lebanon border. We share those concerns and we are working with our international partners to support the Lebanese Government in building up their border monitoring capacity. Further, we continue to express in forthright terms our concerns about Iran’s role in funding and equipping Hezbollah. We are in exactly the position the House would expect us to be in.

My Lords, when I was in Lebanon last month I had an unexpected meeting with the leader of Hezbollah in south Lebanon. I took the opportunity to ask him about the abducted soldiers. He said that Hezbollah hoped to exchange them for Lebanese prisoners held in Israel along the same lines as they had before. Will the Minister therefore energetically pursue a dialogue in the way he has indicated and not leave the way open for further conflict between Hezbollah and Israel of the kind which left 1,200 people dead; led to massive destruction in Beirut and south Lebanon; failed to recover the Israeli soldiers and resulted in the death of five others; and, worst of all, left Hezbollah stronger in the Lebanon? Can he do everything to avoid a repetition of that conflict?

My Lords, the need for a comprehensive agreement about peaceful relations across all those borders and across all those countries remains at the heart of the work of the international community, and a great deal of effort is being put into that. We have seen two visits by the Prime Minister in recent months; the Foreign Secretary was in the region between 5 and 7 February, discussing exactly these issues; President Abbas will be visiting London for talks with the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary; and we will continue to do all we can to support the Government of Lebanon in increasing security. No one wants to see a repeat of last summer.

My Lords, I very much hope the soldiers will be released before long, but might it not help if there were wider negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, for example, as well as between Israel and some Arab countries? The conditions that Israel sets, backed by the quartet, before negotiations can begin are that the Palestinians must recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept all previous engagements. Are those conditions really helpful?

My Lords, it is hard in any negotiation to talk fruitfully to people who say that you have no right to exist and who are prepared to use extreme violence to achieve that end. It does not seem wholly unreasonable that people say, “Let us at least have the basis of an understanding that is peaceable”. However, the Government have welcomed the deal brokered by the Saudis, which could potentially produce a partner with whom Israel can bargain fruitfully. Still, I urge that partner itself to desist from a precondition—namely, that it cannot tolerate the existence of the state of Israel—before it starts talking.

My Lords, I, too, refer to the Palestinian detainees, as the Lebanese detainees have been mentioned by my noble friend. We on these Benches strongly support the immediate release of the three Israeli soldiers, the quicker the better. The Government have been making representations about that. However, will they also resume, even more strenuously, their previously very strong representations to secure the release of something like 8,000 Palestinian detainees, most of them detained without trial, often in very harsh and stressful conditions? We can remind ourselves sombrely that that figure is, pro rata, about twice the United Kingdom’s entire prison population.

My Lords, I suspect that the fact that a large number of people are being held by the Israelis is not helpful to the peace process. I have said that from this Dispatch Box in the past. With reference to the original Question, confidence-building must depend on states that are neighbours to each other not crossing each other’s borders and seizing each other’s citizens. Those are not conditions in which there is likely to be a fruitful peace negotiation, and everyone has responsibilities in that respect.

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Steel, is right that the attack on Hezbollah by Israel to recover the three soldiers was particularly inept, and that several people have resigned, recognising that it was badly managed. It has left Hezbollah possibly as powerful as ever and still trying to undermine the Government of Lebanon directly.

The Minister said we are helping the Lebanese Government and Mr Sinora. Would he say how we are doing so? They are under considerable pressure from street violence by those who are attempting to overthrow a democratically elected Government.

My Lords, we are helping in a number of ways. We are strong supporters of the United Nations force that is attempting to clear paramilitary and militia detachments from parts of Lebanon, which is not easy; we well understand the extent to which they are embedded in that part of the country. We are trying to ensure that there are discussions among the factions in Lebanon to try to produce a means of sustaining the Government of Lebanon. But, first and foremost, we are trying to ensure that the route map for the Middle East peace process is resuscitated. Without that happening, I doubt we have the preconditions for anything else to succeed.