Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Will the Tánaiste continue to raise at the Foreign Affairs Council the concern that exists in respect of the investigation into the use of chemical weapons by the UN? That investigation has been blocked because Assad's Government has refused to grant an international inspection team unfettered access to the country. I understand the Assad regime wanted certain regions to be excluded and that these are the ones in which it is suspected that alleged chemical weapons attacks - which the rebels and the Government accuse each other of having perpetrated - took place. Will the Tánaiste continue to clearly let it be known at the Foreign Affairs Council that Ireland will oppose the possible ending of the European Union's ban on arms exports to Syria? There has been increasing pressure from some member states to the effect that the Syrian rebels should be armed. I take it that the Irish position will continue to be that we want a negotiated settlement and that we do not see the lifting of the ban on arms sales as a means to achieving such an urgently required settlement?

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