Mr. Patrick Smyth:

I am not neutral nor has this State been neutral. Deputy Halligan's definition of neutrality begs the central question I have tried to raise in my paper, that is, when one is not talking about a conventional war but about an operation which is mandated by the UN Security Council, to talk about being neutral between the UN and the Afghans does not make sense because that is not what this is about. This is about how the international community tries to regulate security on an international level. I completely accept Deputy Boyd Barrett's arguments about Iraq, that there are considerable complexities in that issue. It is not as simple as having a UN mandate.

To answer Deputy Halligan's question about what neutrality means, that it is not taking a side in a war, what is going on in Afghanistan? Is it a war? What is going on in other operations where we have been involved in peace enforcing, which is taking one side and policing a situation on behalf of the international community very robustly? At the moment, our troops in Golan are engaged in peace enforcing missions which involve taking a decided position against ISIS-linked forces in Golan who are threatening our troops and those of other UN countries.