Govt feared UN soldiers may be targeted in Mideast conflict
The Government had feared UN soldiers would be targeted in the Israel-Lebanon conflict, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said today.
The Taoiseach earlier condemned Israel’s ‘reckless and disproportionate’ use of force which resulted in the death of four international peacekeepers at a Unifil observation post at Khiyam, southern Lebanon.
The Foreign Affairs Minister, who said the crisis will be discussed at today’s weekly Cabinet meeting, revealed there was great unease among Irish UN personnel serving with the UN in southern Lebanon about the way both sides, but particularly the Israelis, had been operating in the region.
He said: “It is just a terrible situation. We feared this would happen and it would spread and other difficulties would happen such has Unifil being targeted.
“There has been some fairly significant events happening out there which would lead one to believe that there was some targeting of some of these areas or at least some reckless activity taking place by the Israeli forces.”
The Dundalk TD said the Government had been receiving ongoing feedback from Irish UN officers in the region.
“There has been great unease amongst our people on the ground in relation to the way both sides, but particularly the Israelis have been operating in the south Lebanon today.”
Speaking ahead of today’s Rome conference to discuss the conflict, he added: “We are extremely worried. We have been using the last couple of days to try to lobby as many people as possible we can not only to get the ceasefire but to get corridors opened during the evacuations.”
Mr Ahern said today’s summit of 18 countries was important but pointed out the absence of main players such as Syria and Iran.
“The attitude of the US, the UK and a number of other smaller states is surprising in my view because our view is that – and we would be on similar lines to the Italians and the French – a ceasefire must take place immediately. Delaying it is not, in our view, the right thing.
“We cannot wait. We cannot have a ceasefire in a week or in a month’s time. In our view that would lead to more loss of life and a complete escalation of the crisis in the Middle East which has the potential of spreading into other countries.”
Mr Ahern said that several issues like the Iranian nuclear stand-off and now the situations in Lebanon and Gaza have been feeding into the instability in the Middle East.
“If you were trying to deal with all of these issues all at once, it will take some very significant time and I don’t think time is on the side of the people of Lebanon, the ordinary civilians who are bearing the brunt of all of this.
“One of the difficulties with the conference today is that the people who have influence on Hezbollah, Syria and Iran are not there.”
The minister said politicians sometimes felt powerless in trying to mediate in conflict situations.
“We are human beings before we are politicians. Of course our hearts go out to the people of Lebanon and indeed the people of Israel who have suffered from suicide bombings over the years.”
Mr Ahern said he regretted that recent talks between Hamas and Israel were on the brink of some agreement when Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and provoked Israel.
“It is somewhat ironic that Hezbollah saw an opportunity to destabilise what was a potential agreement between Hamas and the Israelis,” he added.
He said the Israelis were ’putting it up’ to the international community by calling for 20,000 troops to maintain peace in southern Lebanon, which Mr Ahern said would pose huge logistical difficulties to assemble from different countries.
On the subject of committing Irish personnel, he said: “We have always come to the fore in relation to supplying troops and we will consider that again.”
“We have one of the highest proportion of troop deployment for peacekeeping in the world and from that point of view we are somehow stretched with our numbers.
If a request was to come, we would consider it as we always do.
He said the Israelis were ’putting it up’ to the international community by calling for 20,000 troops, which Mr Ahern said would be very difficult to assemble from different countries and pose huge logistical difficulties.
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