Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to debate the situation in Syria. I welcome the Minister’s statement, to which I listened intently. It is a damning and trenchant statement. It would be appropriate for him to put his views and those of the Government to the Russian ambassador face to face. I met the Russian ambassador yesterday to put to him the concerns of my party and my constituents about the actions in Syria. I spent almost an hour and a half at the Russian the embassy. It would be worthwhile for the Minister to do likewise. I accept that he has made public statements about the opportunities he has used to raise the concerns of the Government and the Irish people.

We have to consider the scale of what is happening in Syria. Since March 2011 over 250,000 Syrians have died in this conflict and over 1 million have been injured. Almost 5 million are displaced within the country and a further 13.5 million - among them 6 million children - are displaced outside of it. It is difficult to grasp this scale, particularly in the modern era when we can see on television, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter what, for example, the doctors and the Syrian citizens in Aleppo are putting up with. To those who say we are overly critical of Russia, over 90% of the fatalities in Syria come from aerial bombardment. The only people who have planes in this conflict are the Syrian Government and the Russian airforce. The standing down of the Iraqi army after the second Iraq war led to the creation of Islamic State, IS, and brought about its militant views, increasing the number of Islamic terrorists in the region. The current Syrian problem happened when, after the Arab spring in 2011, a 13 year old boy was tortured, butchered and his body mutilated and returned to his family for daring to spray-paint protests about the Assad regime on a wall in Syria. Hundreds and thousands of people came onto the streets demonstrating against the brutality of the Assad regime. IS saw an opportunity and moved from Iraq to Syria where it created its caliphate. Ireland is not neutral in the fight against IS. No one could even remotely understand the level of brutality and barbarism it inflicts on innocent people, minorities and Christians. It is a disgusting group. I would not even call its members human - they are subhuman.

I agree with the Minister that our priority has got to be to do everything we can to bring about an immediate ceasefire. My party circulated to all parties a motion which it intends to move in the next week or two in private member's time looking for cross-party support to call for an immediate ceasefire and a condemnation of the Syrian regime and the Russian military. Others may not sign that because they do not believe it is as critical as it should be of America. The country with the most influence over the Assad regime is Russia. Assad will listen to Russia which is hand in glove with his regime. Those on the far left and in Sinn Féin who believe our motion is too critical of Russia are missing the point. It aims to talk to the people who can influence Assad.

The eight-hour ceasefire yesterday was a start. The Russian ambassador informed me that six corridors for civilians to leave Aleppo would be opened and managed by the Russians. Two further corridors would be opened to allow what is termed the terrorists to leave. Within the group the Russians refer to as "terrorists" is the Free Syrian Army and those whom we would see as moderates and a genuine opposition to the Assad regime. We are not talking about the Al-Nusra Front or Islamic State. We are talking about people who have taken up arms against a brutal regime.

That is what we are talking about.

This debate is important. People one talks to on the streets will say that Ireland has an influence in this area. The Minister knows that. He is our Minister. We have got to work with the people as best we can to stop this horrendous humanitarian crisis, which is probably the worst in modern times. I remember the former Yugoslavia. I remember Srebrenica as a younger person. On the scale of things, this conflict is a much greater crisis and all pressure must be brought to bear to ensure it is ended as swiftly as possible. The problem is that, time and again, the Russians have used their veto at the United Nations. Zeid al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated that the UN Security Council should, without further delay, adopt criteria to restrain members from using the veto when there are serious concerns that war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide have been committed. I agree with that statement. Russia has hidden behind this veto to allow what is happening on a daily basis in Syria, and it cannot be allowed to continue.

In ten, 20 or 50 years from now, how will the United Nations explain to people looking back on this the reason we stood by and allowed this conflict to happen? The roots of the problem go a long way back. I refer to the Arab Spring and everything that happened from that, and in regard to Islamic State. This is not about the Islamic State. This is not about trying to topple Bashar al-Assad either. This is about trying to stop the murders of innocent men, women and children and the deliberate targeting of hospitals, schools, bakeries, medical centres and infrastructure with the heaviest weaponry, and the best and newest technology, being used to inflict massive damage and to wipe Aleppo off the map. That is what is happening. They are doing that to take the pressure off the Damascus regime and ensure that Assad remains in place, but that is a debate for another day.

I appeal to the Russians, as I did yesterday when I met the ambassador, to take on board the view that the Irish Government, the Irish Parliament, the Dáil and the Seanad find this action unacceptable and that Russia can and should use the influence it has with Assad to ensure an immediate ceasefire takes place and that humanitarian aid and medical supplies can get into Aleppo.

I thank the Government for allowing this debate. I look forward to a further debate on the issue by way of a Fianna Fáil motion, which we will move within the next two weeks.

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