Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the ambassador for his responses. Our policy is to recognise a two-state solution. We believe a two-state solution is the best way forward for peace in the region. We recognise that Israel must protect its borders and also recognise that the Palestinians should have a state. We believe that in terms of the peace process a two-state solution is the way forward. Obviously, the situation is difficult. We appeal to Israel to discontinue its attacks on Gaza. This is extremely important in the context of the number of innocent people being killed as a result of those attacks. We also appeal, perhaps through the ambassador, to Hamas not to fire rockets into Israel. Israel and Palestine are attacking each other on a tit-for-tat basis. Something terrible could arise out of that, such as occurred during Operation Cast Lead.

On the stalled human rights talks, I understand that a precondition of Iran in relation to those talks is that human rights cannot be discussed with any organisation except the European Union. In other words, they cannot be discussed in the United Nations. We appeal to all sides to return to the table on the issue of human rights.

I thank the ambassador for this open and frank discussion on Iran's political activities in the Middle East. Obviously, we hope that a solution will be found to the nuclear issue. We welcome the trade links between Ireland and Iran. However, we believe there is more that can be done by Iran in relation to human rights and that it can play a greater part in bringing an end to the Syrian crisis which has caused the deaths of thousands of people. We look forward to future dialogue with the ambassador and wish him every success in his capacity as Iranian Ambassador to Ireland.