Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 January 2018
7. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if his attention has been drawn to the suspension by Norway of arms sales to the UAE; and if he will discuss this suspension with his EU counterparts with a view to agreeing to pursue a similar EU wide suspension of arms sales to the UAE and other members of the Saudi led coalition attacking Yemen. [3665/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn December of last year, Norway suspended exports of munitions and arms to the United Arab Emirates, UAE, as a precaution because of its concern over the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, not because of any of its military exports had actually been used. When we raised this issue before, the then Minister, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, referred to trade missions and all the rest of it. That is unacceptable. I am wondering whether we can follow the lead of the Norwegians and advocate that there be an EU suspension of the sale of arms to the UAE as a result of the appalling catastrophe in Yemen.
I am aware that Norway has announced that it is suspending the export of weapons and ammunition to the United Arab Emirates, UAE. Ireland does not have an arms industry and therefore does not export arms to the UAE. There is no consensus at present at EU level on an arms embargo affecting the UAE.
On the problems posed by arms transfers to conflict regions generally, Ireland's efforts are concentrated on universalisation and implementation of the 2014 Arms Trade Treaty, ATT, which has been signed and ratified by all EU member states. In addition, the EU's Common Position on Arms Exports contains eight risk-assessment criteria that all EU countries must apply to licensing decisions for exports of military goods.
As with the Deputy, I am deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in Yemen. The war, now in its third year, has triggered a humanitarian crisis and more than two thirds of the population are in need of urgent assistance. Ireland has been to the fore in raising human rights issues in Yemen at the Human Rights Council. Ireland has also provided over €11 million in humanitarian assistance to Yemen since 2015, and we are committed to maintaining that support.
Ireland has strong ties with the UAE, and within this relationship we are able to raise our concerns. My predecessor, Deputy Flanagan, raised concerns about the humanitarian situation in Yemen with the UAE Minister for Foreign Affairs, both during a visit to the UAE in November 2016 and later in Dublin in February 2017. Concerns about the conflict in Yemen have also been raised at official level with other regional actors, such as Iran.
At the Foreign Affairs Council in December 2017, I urged stronger EU action on humanitarian access in Yemen, which was raised in this House, and more robust political engagement by the EU. My officials and I will continue to raise my concerns on humanitarian access at EU and international levels, whenever opportunities arise. We also raised this at UN level.
The Minister is correct that all sides need to sit down and negotiate a political solution but that will not happen without some serious arm-twisting. The European Union has the power to do that. The Minister, as a representative of a small, neutral country, has an opportunity to be at the forefront in advocating a suspension of arms sales to the region.
I appreciate that the Minister is genuinely motivated but I just do not get it because there is a contradiction between what he is saying and what he is doing. It is a bit like telling one's children not to eat sweets and then buying them sweets. That is what the EU is doing when demanding an end to humanitarian abuses and deploring the starvation etc. at the same time as facilitating countries to carry out the abuses in the first place and giving them the arms to do so. We are not directly involved but I advocate Ireland being to the fore in the EU in arguing for a change in this regard and demonstrating to the Saudis and UAE that we are not into what I have described. There is an incredible irony in that the humanitarian disaster in Yemen is even worse than that in Syria. The Irish Government supports full-scale sanctions in every respect regarding Syria. We are not arguing for sanctions covering all goods; we just want an end to the sale of arms. How could anybody not advocate and articulate that viewpoint? I just do not understand it.
We have advocated very strongly the viewpoint that the EU needs to take a more robust political approach to trying to deal with the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, which is essentially a funded civil war, with funding and arms coming from outside. There are a number of countries responsible for this continuing. The EU does need to play a constructive and determined role in trying to bring an end to it. Ireland does not have the capacity to announce trade embargoes on its own because trade policy is the collective responsibility of the EU. In any case, many countries would argue it is easy for Ireland to say what it is saying because it is not exporting anything in the arms category. Our announcement would be a somewhat hollow gesture but I do believe Ireland needs to be a country that advocates much more robust engagement by the EU. It should demand of the EU and its foreign affairs team answers and actions that can result in a more proactive response than has been evident to date.
All I am asking the Minister to do is to discuss these issues and raise the issue of a suspension of arms sales with his counterparts in the EU. I do not believe that is unreasonable. What I find incredible is the contradiction in policy.
We know that war crimes have been committed in that area. We have more than enough evidence to go on in terms of the appalling humanitarian crisis that exists. How can the Minister square the circle whereby the EU approved an embargo on arms sales to Venezuela in November because of electoral irregularities but we cannot find it in ourselves to advocate an end to arms sales to Yemen, where war crimes have been committed and the worst humanitarian crisis anywhere on the globe is unfolding? The EU stands over sanctions on everything, not just arms, to Syria. This has actually had a humanitarian impact but nobody is calling for an end to arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both of which are responsible for war crimes in the area. That is appalling and I believe the Government should be making such a call. It would give meat to our words and would mean that we are not just telling the parties to behave themselves but are actually removing some of the weaponry that facilitates the slaughter that is ongoing.
Ireland has advocated in this area. We worked, for example, with the Netherlands, which took the lead on a motion at the UN Human Rights Council, UNHRC, to insist on an international, independent inspection team to investigate accusations of war crimes. That created quite a lot of tension at the UNHRC but Ireland was very strongly supportive of what the Netherlands was trying to do. It is also important to say that there are two sides in this war; in fact, there are many more than two sides. This is not a one-sided conflict whereby those who are sponsoring one side in this war are responsible for all of the atrocities. This is a horrible, nasty civil war where both sides need to be scrutinised by the international community and forced into a negotiated solution and that is the approach that Ireland has taken.
I thank the Minister. The next-----
My question-----
Does the Deputy wish to proceed to question No. 8 now?
The Acting Chairman was just about to call Deputy Wallace.
Uimhir a hocht. Deputy Wallace has 30 seconds to introduce his question.
I am sorry-----
There is no need to apologise.
I did not realise how officious the Acting Chairman is-----
The Deputy is even more officious.
He is just enthusiastic.
