Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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What is Mr. Yassin-Kassab's view on the future governance of Syria? We have identified all the problems. I have spoken out against Russia's involvement. Do people have proposals about Syria's future governance? We cannot let it go on. Regardless of whether I like it, Assad is still in place and he obviously has support. We keep talking about tragedies and I, like Mr. Yassin-Kassab, deplore them, but we are in the business of trying to find solutions to problems. I cannot see any attempt to find solutions. Everybody is upset and complaining about the current situation and about Russia. We had the Russian ambassador appear before the committee recently and I told him to his face that I thought it was wrong that the Russia was interfering in Syria just as it is doing in Ukraine. What I am interested in is solutions to problems. I am not interested in going back over everything. I do not agree with what happened but we are where we are. There is no attempt to have this crisis addressed at the United Nations or to have discussions. The is the one aspect of this that I find very frustrating. I am not qualified enough about the local scene to give an opinion but this is a Syrian problem for the Syrian people and that is why I do not like the likes of Russia interfering. Assad is still there. We do not seem to have any positive proposals, to which we could latch on, to support genuine attempts to put a new regime in place. That is the frustrating aspect about this. Unless we can get this crisis dealt with at the United Nations or can get people around a table discussing it, I do not know where this is going. There are so many different elements to the problem. I have been to Syria, admittedly it was 20 years ago. It is terrible to see a country like that being devastated. We are politicians and our job is try to find solutions and to support practical proposals that could bring about peace. I have yet to hear any proposal to which we could latch on. I do not agree with the Russians being in Syria bombing its people. They are doing the same in Ukraine. They walked into Crimea and the rest of the world stood back and let them do that.