To start, I agree entirely with the Minister that first and foremost in this debate our thoughts have to be with the 24,000 citizens of this country in the Middle East. I too commend the diplomatic teams working there to ensure their safety. This has to be our priority, and the Government is right in adopting that approach. Before I turn to the geopolitical situation, I will comment on a number of specific impacts here. There has obviously been a discussion around what has been happening with fuel prices and the price gouging going on. The Minister will also be aware from her former brief that quite a number of import and export businesses rely on trade coming from the region. They are going to experience significant disruption. It is important the Government keeps an eye on what happens in this space and that the necessary supports are provided to those businesses, if necessary. I reject the idea that the Taoiseach is engaged in some sort of appeasement. The Taoiseach is very committed to defending international law. We have been very strong in this country and in this Government in talking about the importance of multilateralism. I am very proud of the tradition of multilateralism, in both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, where support for our membership of the United Nations and of the European Union is embedded within our parties. That will continue. This involves listening to and engaging with all parties, and not cheap stunts like calling for the expulsion of ambassadors and so on. Our approach talks about real diplomacy and fully understanding all the geopolitical issues involved. In recent months and years, we have witnessed horrors in Gaza and the West Bank. I call out the genocide that has happened and the disgraceful actions of the Israel Defence Forces. I spoke in the first debate we had on the Middle East. I checked back over the Official Record and I was the only Deputy to mention Iran’s role in all of this and its role in terms of using its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah. We need to reflect on the fact that all these conflicts are linked. I heard a number of colleagues opposite praising Pedro Sanchez. I have a lot of time for Pedro Sanchez, and I think he is correct that the actions of the United States and Israel are wrong. He is also committed, however, to geopolitical solutions to issues and he has also called out those who have opposed giving a loan to Ukraine to ensure the country can continue to defend itself. The reality is that the only reason Ukraine has not been reduced to the rubble we have seen in Gaza is that the State of Ukraine has been able to stand up against the might of Russia and support to do that has been provided by Europe. Those who oppose giving assistance to Ukraine now are guilty of complicity in the genocide being committed by Russia against the Ukrainian people. I requested a debate in this House two weeks ago on Ukraine to mark the anniversary of Russia’s illegal invasion. It did not happen. I again ask in this geopolitical context that it would happen. It is important that we debate what is happening there because what is going on there is very much linked to what is happening in the Middle East. Let there be no mistake about the relationship between Tehran and Moscow, and the fact that Iran has been supplying drones to Russia, drones that are being used against the Ukrainian people. I have no doubt about the actions of the United States and Israel that are wrong but we do need to start to talk about Iran, its role in the world and this idea that somehow Donald Trump has no respect for international law but the mullahs in Iran do have some sort of respect for it. That is complete nonsense. If we look at Iran, this is not a new war. Iran has been engaged in a hybrid and grey-zone war against so many countries over such a long period. Even if we look back over the past few days, where has Iran bombed? It has not just tried to target the United States and Israel. It has also directed its weapons against Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, UAE, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. There are certainly questions about all those jurisdictions. We know that Iran is not some innocent party in all of this. Iran has been the master for many years of hybrid or grey-zone warfare. It thinks about what it can get away with. It has proxies in Yemen, Lebanon and Palestine, including Hamas and Hezbollah. These are organisations that have caused untold damage. Let it not be forgotten that Hezbollah was responsible for the 2022 killing of UN peacekeeper Private Seán Rooney. Remember as well that the individual convicted by a Lebanese military tribunal of that killing, Mohammad Ayyad, allegedly sought refuge in Iran and was protected there. Iran, therefore, provided safe harbour to somebody convicted of the killing of a peacekeeper and Iran funded the killing of that peacekeeper because of its ongoing support of Hezbollah. When it comes to cybercrime, Iran is one of the four countries globally that is by far the most involved in cybercrime, including against this State. I have not even started to talk about how women and minorities, particularly the LGTB community, are treated by the authorities in Tehran. If people identify as LGTB or in any way show any sort of affection for somebody of the same sex, they face the death penalty. This is morally wrong. Ever since the mullahs came to power in 1979, when we talk about Islamic law being enforced, it means non-compliance with it will meet with a violent response from the Iranian authorities. There is mandatory veiling. In fact, gender apartheid has long existed in Iran. I strongly believe that we do need to call out what the US and Israel have done but there is something else we need to call out in this House. We see members of the Irish-American movement protesting about this and claiming to speak on behalf of the Iranian people while real Iranians are having to organise counterprotests to say they know what is going on in their country. This is the perfect example of what Thomas Piketty, the French economist, referred to as the Brahmin left, the left that has long since given up really caring about workers and is more enthused about telling people in this country and other countries how they should be living. By the way, I love the fact it was some of the same people who were telling the Iranians how they should be living who only a few weeks ago met with a counterprotest from Venezuelans who welcomed the removal of the dictator Maduro. Up to 30,000 people have been killed in the protests in Iran since the start of this year because they engaged in peaceful protest against discrimination by the regime. I, for one, do not believe that the removal of Ayatollah Khamenei is a bad thing. I strongly condemn attacks on any innocents, whether it happens in Iran, the West Bank, Israel, Syria or any other country. The removal of the ayatollah and the despotic regime, however, is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I believe that in the long term, it will be a good thing for the region. We need to go further, however. We need to ensure international law is respected. We need to lead a campaign when it comes to reform of the UN. I am a strong supporter of our neutrality, but our neutrality means our hands should not be tied by members of the Security Council. We will not get a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon because the US will veto it. There will not be a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine because Russia will veto it. China’s economic interests, as we saw in the Balkans but also in other regions, will ensure that China will veto many of those missions as well. Those who argue in favour of maintaining the triple lock are actually in favour of destroying Irish neutrality. They are in favour of handing over our powers to decide on our future defence and security policy to Washington, Moscow or Beijing. It is very easy for us in this country to speak about the horrors happening in so many other parts of the world. Ireland is not perfect, but I always point out to people that we are incredibly lucky to live in an open, safe, prosperous democracy where people can peacefully protest outside our national Parliament, and as we know, there are peaceful protests outside every day of the week. Real people are being impacted, however, by the decisions happening and by what is going on in the Middle East. In our debates on this, we cannot allow an anti-Americanism to creep in. Friends will call out the United States, but let us have no doubt that the Iranian regime is a hateful, despotic regime that needs to be removed. This country needs to stand with the ordinary, innocent individuals of Iran and particularly those brave people who have been protesting against the actions of the Khamenei regime over the past number of years. As a country, we need to recommit ourselves to multilateralism. We need to support the stance that was taken by Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, at Davos. The Government and the Taoiseach have provided the right path in terms of the approach we are taking. For smaller countries and middle-ranking powers, it is important that we co-operate and work together. Our principled approach on this, whether it is dealing with Tehran, Washington, Moscow or Beijing, must be that we will always stand up for those things that have always been integral to this State, namely, human rights, the rule of law and the protection of democracy.

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