Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Israel has not acknowledged or claimed responsibility for the military attacks on Syria. It is believed that Israel is responsible. It is also believed that it may be due to the movement of weapons to Hezbollah which, in turn, would be used against Israel. As I have stated, the further militarisation of the conflict in Syria, including militarisation by the intervention by other states in a military fashion, should not be happening.

On the issue of what, at a practical level, we do to help with what Deputy Crowe described graphically, the big effort that we are making as a state is ensuring that this issue is not forgotten. There are so many different conflicts taking place, including conflicts in that region, that there is always a danger that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the requirements of the Middle East peace process drops down the list of priorities and the political agenda. I see it as my responsibility as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to ensure that the issue does not slip down the political agenda or the order of priorities within the European Union. We have worked, probably more than most, to keep that issue alive, to keep an EU focus on the necessity to work for a peace settlement, to highlight the illegality of the settlements and to keep a strong European Union focus on it, and we will continue to do that. As I stated earlier, I hope that we will discuss the issue fully at the June Foreign Affairs Council and by that stage, I would also hope that some further progress would have been made in efforts to get serious peace negotiations under way.

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