Dr. Nader Hashemi:

The Kurds have been treated very badly in the modern history of the Middle East. Their sad fate is that they are divided between four countries. Any solution to a stable Middle East must include recognition of Kurdish national and cultural rights. There is no support in the international community for an independent Kurdistan, despite what we hear about the withering away of the First World War borders. However, there is a lot of support for federal political systems in the region in Iraq and in a future Syria that grants groups such as the Kurds full cultural autonomous and even national recognition but within the existing framework of Iraq and Syria and in Turkey. That is what has been happening in the case of Iraq. The Kurds in Iraq basically are autonomous. That is what needs to happen in a future Syria. That is what is beginning to happen in the case of Turkey. There has been some movement in terms of Turkey's relationship with the Kurds, a de-escalation of that particular conflict. That is something that the international community should be pushing.

In terms of President Assad's future, the Deputy is correct that he is not going anywhere. Let us be clear why he is not going anywhere. President Assad is not going because he has strong support from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, and the international community has stood on the sidelines for the past three and a half years and abandoned the moderate Syrian rebels.

President Assad is not going to go anywhere until he is pushed. He will not give up 44 years of one family rule because of some pro-democracy protests that happened three and a half years ago. President Assad will be forced to concede some of what he holds right now if he is pressed to do so. The Russian position could be challenged in the Security Council. Iran's position in the region could be challenged by the global community. There is no stability in Syria or the broader Middle East as long as Assad stays in power. I was very happy to hear the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan, make that exact same point at this committee last week. That is the correct policy. Ireland seems to be on that track and it needs to stay on that track.

With respect to Libya and Syria, Deputy O'Sullivan is correct, Libya is a disaster. The international community came to the aid of the Libyan people to overthrow Gadaffi, however, afterwards they basically abandoned them. There are lessons to be learned from that. We talk about a future stable Syria, the lesson from Libya is that it is not simply good enough to topple the dictator, there has to be a plan for stabilisation, reconstruction and peacekeeping in which Ireland can play a role in the aftermath. Otherwise, one is prone to get the dissolution of the state, war, anarchy, breakdown and the possibility of a repeat scenario along the Libyan model in Syria. That is not what we want to see so that a central element of a peace plan must have built into it a post-conflict reconstruction and stabilisation plan.