Taoiseach Leo Varadkar criticised US president Donald Trump's decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem as a "misstep" and the "wrong long term decision" for the region.
Speaking on Friday after the United Nations voted to condemn the unilateral action by the United States to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Mr Varadkar said the move would make a peaceful settlement in the region “very hard to secure”.
Mr Varadkar said the decision "will stoke up tension in this region", and had already provoked protests. He was speaking while visiting Irish peacekeeping troops in south Lebanon, who are serving at the border of Israel. There have been several protests in Lebanon and in Gaza following the controversial US policy shift.
“I think America having taken such a strong position and such a one-sided decision in recent weeks doesn’t make it easier to get back to the kind of negotiations that brought us very close to a lasting settlement in the last 20 years” he said.
Ireland voted along with 127 other countries to condemn the US action on Thursday night. Mr Varadkar said “Ireland had no reservations whatsoever voting as we did in the UN”, as Mr Trump’s decision was the “wrong approach”.
Ireland was "open" to formally recognising Palestine as a state, but the recognition should come as part of a EU-wide agreement Mr Varadkar said. The European Union could play the role of honest broker in helping to find a solution where the Israelis and Palestinians could "coexist", Mr Varadkar said. Due to the current tensions in the region the "conditions at the moment aren't right" for any viable settlement.
Wreath laid
On Friday Mr Varadkar visited the Irish peacekeeping forces serving in the United Nations mission in south Lebanon, and laid a wreath at a memorial in Tibnin that commemorates the 47 Irish troops who have died while on service in the country.
Capt Eoin Troy, speaking at a short ceremony, said the Irish soldiers had “made the ultimate sacrifice in the quest for world peace”. Tibnin is close to a former Irish peacekeeping base in the area, and the local Lebanese community still hold a ceremony at the memorial once a month to remember the fallen Irish troops.
During the trip Mr Varadkar visited UN Post 2-45 where the main Irish force is based along with troops from Finland and Estonia. Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of the first deployment of Irish troops into the country, when the UN mission began in 1978.
The visiting group received a briefing on the current Irish area of operations, which is patrolled daily and covers 11 villages, most of which are inhabited by the Shia Muslim population. Minister for State with responsibility for defence Paul Kehoe, Irish Ambassador to Egypt Sean O’Regan and Defence Forces chief of staff Mark Mellett also travelled on the trip.
Brutal civil war
The last major conflict in the region was a short war in 2006 between Hizbollah and Israel, and previously the country was engulfed in a brutal civil war from 1975 to 1990. But luxury mansions and Lebanese summer homes now dot many of the hills near the UN base, a sign of how far the country has come in recent years.
The local relationship with the Irish troops is overwhelmingly positive; children especially in the area wave to the convoys of white armoured carriers as they pass, with the Irish troops enthusiastically returning the gesture.
Addressing the Irish troops at their base Mr Varadkar said the peacekeeping mission in Lebanon is one “that Irish people have grown up with over the years” and people in Ireland are aware and “immensely proud of”.
