Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As we have been very vocal on this issue, that has created some tension, although I had a long and constructive, if direct, meeting with Ethiopia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in New York in September. Ireland has made it its business on the Security Council to raise concern and to shine a spotlight on this issue. We are very concerned about the future of Ethiopia. It is possible that Ethiopia, a country of 115 million people, could fracture causing enormous instability in the Horn of Africa, not least to its closest neighbours. We want stability. We do not want a fracturing of politics, regions and peoples in Ethiopia.

We want the country to stay together. We believe there is no military solution to the current conflict, so we want dialogue. We also demand humanitarian access for people who desperately need it from the international community. That has been blocked by what is effectively a blockade for many months. This is not about taking sides but about calling out breaches of international law and international humanitarian law, and doing what we were elected to the UN Security Council to do for conflicts such as this.

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