Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he raised the matter of the conflict in Syria during the OSCE conference last week; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56194/12]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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I have reported elsewhere on the OSCE Ministerial Council held in Dublin last week. This was a very large international meeting with a very full agenda. I did not as Chairman attempt to raise also the issue of Syria, which is outside the remit of the OSCE. However, important consultations relating to Syria did take place on the margins of the meeting involving US Secretary of State Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and the UN/League of Arab States Joint Special Representative, Lakhdar Brahimi.

I and my Department were very pleased to have facilitated these discussions, which were organised at short notice. I also met Mr. Brahimi to receive his personal assessment of the crisis. I also discussed the situation in Syria with Foreign Minister Lavrov and the British Foreign Secretary, William Hague.

Ireland remains fully supportive of Mr. Brahimi and his efforts to promote a political resolution to the conflict. We earnestly hope that these efforts will succeed and that they will in due course allow the UN Security Council to live up to its responsibilities and to adopt a strong Resolution which will chart a political way ahead to a new, post-Assad Syria.