Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

As Deputy Ó Fearghaíl acknowledged, I attended last Friday's meeting of Friends of Syria at which 107 countries were represented, about half at ministerial level. We heard from representatives of the Syrian opposition of the atrocities being committed in Syria. About 16,000 people have been killed in Syria and there is continuing violence and attacks on the civilian population.

A robust position by the United Nations is needed. There has been one Security Council resolution which I have described and that allowed for the establishment of UNSMIS. However, it is our belief that we need a UN Security Council resolution that will allow for the imposition of much more robust and more widely respected sanctions against the Syrian regime. For that, the agreement of Russia and China would be necessary. Continuing efforts are being made to persuade both Russia and China to participate in a UN Security Council resolution. I hope they will do so. Their influence in involving other countries that may be useful in bringing about a resolution of the atrocities, including Iran, would be helpful. At this stage, the focus is on seeing what can be done to obtain a further Security Council resolution that would have real impact on the ground.

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