Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government expresses its absolute solidarity with the people of Iran who are seeking democracy and human rights and fighting for equality for women, LGBT people and people of all religions. I express our solidarity with them. We raise these issues with the Iranian Government and with the Iranian ambassador to Ireland.

Regarding our plans to reopen an embassy in Tehran, a chargé d'affaires has been appointed and is representing Ireland in Iran from the German embassy. In general, we take the view that it is better to have lines of communication with other countries even if those countries have different values from ours. That is why we have embassies in many parts of the world that are not democratic. We think it is better to be able to talk than not to be able to talk at all. However, the decision on whether we will open a physical embassy in Iran is under review, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs has said.

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