Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 March 2018
42. Deputy Darragh O'Brien asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on whether the EU and the international community are doing enough to end the conflict in Syria, which has just marked its seventh anniversary; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14253/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraDoes the Tánaiste believe the EU and the international community are doing enough to end the conflict in Syria, which has just marked its seventh anniversary? Almost 500,000 people have been killed since 2011, while more than 13 million people require humanitarian assistance, including nearly 3 million trapped in besieged and hard-to-reach areas. Are there proposals for a change in the EU response?
The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is leading political negotiations to end the conflict based on the 2012 Geneva communique and UN Security Council Resolution 2254. Ireland and the EU fully support this process. The EU provides direct assistance to the UN-led Geneva peace talks and has launched, in co-ordination with the UN, an initiative to develop political dialogue with key actors from the region to identify common ground. Ireland strongly welcomed the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2401 on 24 February. This resolution calls for an immediate ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access.
The international community must redouble efforts to press for the immediate and full implementation of the ceasefire, and unimpeded humanitarian access to populations in need. EU Foreign Ministers discussed the situation in Syria at their informal meeting on 15 February and again at the Foreign Affairs Council meetings on 26 February and 19 March. The EU and its member states have to date mobilised more than €10.4 billion for humanitarian assistance inside Syria and in neighbouring countries, making the EU the largest donor to the effort. The EU hosted a donor conference for Syria in April 2017 at which pledges totalling €5.6 billion were made, and will host another donor conference on Syria in April 2018.
Since 2012, Ireland has contributed over €95 million to the humanitarian effort in response to the conflict in Syria. Ireland will make a further pledge of humanitarian support in 2018 at the Brussels donor conference next month. Ireland also provides political and financial support to a broad range of measures to ensure full legal accountability for all war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria. However, the direct answer to the Deputy's question is we never can do enough until the conflict is over. In the years ahead, history will judge the international community harshly in terms of how the conflict developed over a long period and the number of civilians who have lost their lives as a result.
I agree wholeheartedly that we can never do enough in this regard but the problem is the conflict has moved into its eighth year. The indiscriminate attacks on, and bombing of, eastern Ghouta is a carbon copy of what happened in Aleppo when the international community effectively stood by, although it does care about it. We must examine how the veto works at the UN Security Council and Russia's role as a member of the council while also being a major player in the region and a major supporter of the Assad regime. It is more worrying that the war has become a global war being fought out in Syria involving different global partners. The conflict has become more complex and the longer it goes on, the less opportunity there will be to end it in the short term.
I wonder, on foot of his discussions with colleagues in the region - I know he has visited the region - what the view is there. Is there any chink of light or any hope at all in regard to the stalled talks? While I know it is difficult to include Assad in those talks, perhaps there is an attempt to include members of the regime to try to bring about a ceasefire, or are we really just waiting for Assad to effectively win the war and wipe out the opposition?
I was at the UN Security Council when it met a number of weeks ago. The first item on the agenda, raised by Secretary General Guterres, was eastern Ghouta and he made a personal appeal to all of the states represented around that table to implement an immediate ceasefire. He described what is happening there as hell on earth, and I think many of us who have looked at video coverage and television footage of what was happening at that time in eastern Ghouta, particularly those of us who are parents, found it pretty hard to watch. There is a huge effort to try to make this ceasefire work and stick. Having said that, I think the Assad regime feels it is victorious and needs to finish the job militarily. Of course, that is resulting in ongoing conflict and military activity that is impacting, in a pretty dire way, on many civilians, particularly women and children.
We will continue to push hard through the Foreign Affairs Council and UN structures to ensure that the EU voice is very strong and clear on this, which it is. However, I believe we have some way to go yet.
I am fully aware of the constraints Ireland operates under and the small level of influence we have, but it is important this is kept to the top of the agenda. In the context of Ireland seeking a seat on the UN Security Council in 2020 and given the failure of the latter to halt the Assad regime and its allies, such as Putin's Russia, will the Tánaiste be seeking changes to how the Security Council operates or has he thought about such proposals, particularly on the use of the veto and if it is employed by one of the combatants in the context of a combat situation? We need to look at that into the future. Has the Tánaiste any thoughts on this issue? It might also give him an opportunity to update the House briefly on how that campaign for us to secure a seat in 2020 is going.
It is going reasonably well but this is a very competitive race and Norway and Canada are significant competitors. There are three countries going for two places but I think there is a very strong case to be made for Ireland as the only EU country putting its name forward. At that time, the only EU representative on the UN Security Council will be France, as a permanent member, so there is a very strong case to be made. We are a small, neutral country and we are not afraid to speak our mind. We use the UN to raise significant concerns from a humanitarian perspective in terms of consistency with international law. I think that will be a very compelling and strong case.
We support the reform of the UN generally but also of the Security Council. We would support a French approach which suggests that, in cases of humanitarian crises, a veto would not be used - that is, when the Security Council is responding to significant crises, vetoes would not be used where there is a need for collective action on a humanitarian basis. That is something we should pursue. There are broader changes we would also like to happen in regard to the Security Council but that one in particular would be very helpful.
