The FCO must do more to stem the bloodshed

The Foreign Office has kindly responded to my Telegraph piece from last week, which suggested that they could do more to confront the religious cleansing sweeping the Middle East. In an extended version of a letter he has sent to the paper, the Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt says that his department is doing plenty:

‘Concrete examples include: Iraq, where the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have raised religious freedoms and where the FCO is funding a further meeting of the High Council of Religious Leaders; Algeria where I recently met a delegation of Christian leaders to discuss the challenges they are facing; Egypt where the Deputy Prime Minister has raised our concerns direct with the Prime Minister; and further afield, in Pakistan where we have been working closely with the Minister for Minorities to increase the profile of religious freedom.’

But I’m afraid the response only shows just how far the FCO has to go.