Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The issue in Syria has moved on from some of those questions, particularly the last batch of questions about how one sees it in terms of the big picture issues of power and influence in the region. A conflict has been going on for over two years and more than 100,000 people have been killed. There has been an involvement by some external actors - if I can use that term. It has become a kind of cockpit for conflict. We need to recalibrate where the priorities now lie. The first priority is to bring that conflict to an end, end the suffering and get a ceasefire at least for humanitarian purposes. We need to work on getting a political resolution that ends the conflict and puts Syria on a peaceful path in which all its citizens irrespective of their religious or other background can have a future.

The conflict has complicated the whole environment. Making an assessment of the relative strengths of different forces is difficult, not least because of what has happened to normal communications in the course of the conflict. The picture is moving. One hears reports of the relative successes or setbacks encountered by different parties to the conflict. There is, of course, intelligence information that has been picked up. I have heard figures mentioned of the relative strengths of the different forces in the conflict. What credibility one can give to those figures is another question.

The conflict is taking place and there have been waves of international responses to it. There was the formation of the Friends of Syria, in which we participated to try to influence and help the situation. There is the mobilisation of the humanitarian effort through the UN, its agencies and NGOs. There is the call of the international community expressed through whatever means for a peaceful resolution. It has been disappointing and enormously frustrating that the UN Security Council was not able to agree a resolution owing, as everybody knows, to the use of the vetoes. Permanent members of the UN Security Council have a very important responsibility.

It is encouraging that the US and Russia were able to agree. Just two weeks ago people were considering a potential, serious military intervention in Syria with all of the consequences that might have flowed from that. It is encouraging that the US and Russia were able to agree a formula. Of course, that formula now needs to be implemented and hopefully we can build on the collaboration between the US and Russia on the chemical weapons issue to drive forward the Geneva II process and try to reach a peaceful settlement. It is not easy; it is complicated and nobody is holding their breath.