Tánaiste tells LARA MARLOWEin New York that chairing OSCE and promoting Ireland's economy go together
TÁNAISTE EAMON Gilmore became the first Irish official to address the United Nations Security Council in more than a decade when he briefed the council on Ireland’s chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe on Thursday night.
At the end of Mr Gilmore’s speech setting out Ireland’s priorities for its chairmanship of the OSCE this year, the discussion turned to the violent repression of the uprising in Syria by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
“I very strongly said that what is happening in Syria was unacceptable and intolerable, and went on to express disappointment that it hadn’t been possible for the Security Council to conclude a resolution on it,” Mr Gilmore told The Irish Times. As permanent members of the council, Russia and China vetoed the resolution on the grounds that it constituted interference in Syria’s internal affairs.
After the Security Council meeting, Mr Gilmore presented a stamp by An Post commemorating Ireland’s chairmanship of the OSCE to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The two men agreed that “the international community cannot stand back from what is happening in Syria, cannot be paralysed into inactivity,” Mr Gilmore said. “Following the inability of the Security Council to agree on a resolution, it is plan B for the international community.”
Mr Ban briefed the Tánaiste on his contacts with the Arab League, which will meet this weekend to discuss the Syrian crisis, and with Catherine Ashton, the EU’s representative for foreign affairs.
“There are possibilities that are being discussed,” Mr Gilmore said. “We’re not talking about an armed approach to it. We’re talking mainly about a diplomatic, political and possibly economic approach. More than 6,000 people have been killed. The Assad regime is behaving in a brutal and oppressive manner towards the people in Syria.”
Dublin will host at least five OSCE meetings this year, including a conference on April 27th which will focus on Northern Ireland as a case study for the “frozen conflicts” which the 56-nation body is attempting to move forward in the breakaway areas of Moldova and Georgia and the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, which is claimed by Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“I believe we can encourage those engaged in negotiations elsewhere to persevere in their efforts by showing that it has been possible to create and build peace in Northern Ireland, and by explaining how this was achieved and how it is being sustained,” Mr Gilmore told the Security Council.
The Irish chairmanship of the OSCE is also focusing on efforts to counter corruption, money-laundering and terrorist financing, Mr Gilmore said. The work of Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau will be considered as a model for confiscating the proceeds of criminal activity.
In a meeting with William Burns, the highest ranking diplomat in the US State Department, and again with the UN Secretary General, Mr Gilmore discussed the Iranian nuclear programme and concern that Israel could launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran.
“A military strike against Iran would be a disaster,” Mr Gilmore warned. “It could spark off something that would be very difficult to control. It would light a fuse in a region that is already very tense. The implications for peace in the region and peace worldwide would also be extremely serious.” During his January 26th-29th trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Mr Gilmore said he “made clear the very, very strong opposition we have to a military strike against Iran”. He reiterated that position in Washington and New York.
Mr Gilmore also discussed the impasse in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations with his US and UN interlocutors. He had told Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu the blockade of the Gaza Strip was counterproductive because “the people most affected by it are those who are engaging in legal business and UN agencies who are trying to build schools and so on”.
He also raised the issue of settlements in the West Bank, particularly the E1 settlement, “which would effectively severe the northern part of the West Bank from the southern part.”
At this stage, Mr Gilmore said, “What the EU and the UN can do is to encourage Israeli-Palestinian talks to proceed and to be meaningful. Given that in an election year the US tends to pull back on its involvement in relation to Israel and Palestine, the EU needs to take up the slack.”
Mr Gilmore met former US president Bill Clinton yesterday to discuss the partnership between Ireland and the Clinton Foundation on fighting Aids in Mozambique and Lesotho, a project to which Ireland contributes €16 million annually.
They discussed the investment round table and the Global Irish Forum which Mr Clinton organised on Thursday.
“The feedback from both was very positive,” Mr Gilmore said. “If we can harness that, it will make a huge contribution to delivering the jobs and economic growth that we need to get out of the recession.”
The Tánaiste saw his dual role this week, explaining both Ireland’s chairmanship of the OSCE and its steps towards economic recovery, as being of a piece.
“It is all very much part of rebuilding Ireland’s reputation,” he said. “You cannot work in the international field purely on the basis that you turn up when you are asking for something. You have to make a contribution.”
Ireland benefits from a long-standing reputation for work in human rights, development, co-operation and peacekeeping, Mr Gilmore said. “We have upped our engagement both in European affairs and international affairs. The reputation we are building on the political side, and the rebuilding on the economic side, will reinforce each other. People on this side of the Atlantic are now looking far more positively on Ireland.”