Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I put it to the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, that while the Irish were campaigning for a seat on the UN Security Council, we did not hear a lot about neutrality. The fact that Ireland was competing for the gig with two NATO members - Norway and Canada - might have had an influence in that we were probably more eager to align ourselves with the US than with neutrality. It could have been a significant factor. I am not sure whether Bono can spell "neutrality" anyway, so we were not expecting him to come up with it but I thought the Taoiseach might have done a little bit in that area.

There is an unparalleled humanitarian crisis happening right now in Yemen. I am not sure how much the Irish Government members say about Yemen when they get the opportunity while in the EU. There seems to be an incredible silence, even by the UN, which is not a radical group by any stretch of the imagination, about the fact that 10 million people in Yemen are at risk of starvation right now. It is reckoned that by the end of the year nearly 18 million people will be at risk of starvation. Cholera has also become a massive problem in the region. Cholera was almost wiped off this planet with the use of medication but the United States of America supported the Saudi blockade, which is stopping medical products getting in to the area, and it is frightening to contemplate what might happen there.

The Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, is probably aware that a group of Independents 4 Change travelled to Syria last week. While we might not necessarily agree with our good friends, Deputies Boyd Barrett and Barry, who have just left the Chamber, we suggest that they go there to see for themselves the serious problems in the area. Members of the Irish Government should also travel to the region. They could find out that it is not actually a civil war. It is a war between the Syrian Government and various groups. The Syrian Government is supported by Russia and Iran. For legality purposes those countries were invited in by the Government of Syria. They are not imposing themselves on it without being invited in, unlike the Western powers. The Syrian Government is fighting jihadist groups such as al-Nusra and al-Qaeda. The Free Syrian Army is another section that, sadly, the EU armed and supported. This beggars belief.

We travelled to Aleppo and met some industrialists and factory owners. They showed us some of the industrial estates in Aleppo. There are three huge industrial estates there.

Aleppo once had an industry of 40,000 companies employing almost 1 million people. One of the first things that the Free Syrian Army, Al-Nusra Front and Jaysh al-Islam did when they reached Aleppo was not to attack the Syrian army, but to destroy the industrial infrastructure. They had control over much of the plant in those factories. They looted them and moved the plant to Turkey. For confirmation, Dr. Ed Horgan of Shannonwatch, who was working for the OSCE as an election monitor in Turkey at the time, was on the Turkish-Syrian border in 2015 when lorries took material out of Syria and into Turkey. President Erdoğan's hands are covered in blood. He was one of the main reasons so many jihadists got into Syria. The Saudis, Chechens and Israelis were involved. The Americans and other western powers armed and funded them. They have created a hell in Syria, but we are still backing UN sanctions. This is like what happened in Iraq. We will eventually reach the same point that we reached in 1998 when Madeleine Albright, the then US Secretary of State, said after it was put to her that the 500,000 children who had died because of sanctions was a terrible price to pay that, yes, but it was worth paying. Are we going down the same road?

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