Tánaiste accuses Netanyahu of undermining UN peacekeepers

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has accused Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of undermining the United Nations and the international rules-based order after Mr Netanyahu called on UNIFIL peacekeepers to withdraw from combat areas in south Lebanon.

Mr Martin is attending a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg which will be dominated by the escalating crisis in the Middle East and Russia's war against Ukraine.

Arriving at the meeting, Mr Martin said: "Prime Minister Netanyahu…is essentially now undermining the United Nations and the United Nations peacekeeping force, and the very rules-based international order, and he needs to step back.

"The international community needs to be very clear, and my colleagues at the European Council need to be very clear about the primacy of the international rules-based order.

"The United Nations is at the heart of that, and United Nations peacekeepers are at the heart of that."

Following international criticism about attacks on UNIFIL personnel and bases, Mr Netanyahu said in a video message yesterday evening: "We regret the harm to Unifil soldiers and we are doing our utmost to prevent such harm. But the simplest and most obvious way to ensure this is simply to withdraw them from the danger zone."

The Tánaiste accused Israel of attempting to "drive the eyes and ears out of south Lebanon and to give itself free rein" by its attacks on UNIFIL positions.

He acknowledged that there was a battle going on between Hezbollah and the Israeli Defence Forces in south Lebanon and he said Ireland had also called on the militant group, which the EU designates as a terrorist organisation, to stop firing rockets into Israel.

He said once the war ended there would have to be some UN presence in south Lebanon to maintain whatever peace or political agreement emerged.

"We cannot have an undermining and a chipping away of the status or the credibility or structures of the United Nations and particularly its peacekeeping forces," he told reporters.

Mr Martin said recent IDF attacks in northern Gaza, including hitting a school sheltering displaced people, had shown that the world had no full picture of what was happening in Gaza.

He called for an EU or international team to be allowed into Gaza to monitor what was happening.

"What's happening in the most recent days in northern Gaza is quite shocking in terms of the mass expulsion of people…and the death and destruction of innocent people.

"That is not acceptable or morally tolerable anymore. Quite a number of our EU member states really need to stand up now on the side of what's right and proper and moral in terms of humanity.

"I'm surprised that some EU colleague states have not been as forceful or as strong in supporting UN peacekeeping troops as they could be. The statement we've issued is welcome, but I think the statement the EU is issuing on this matter could be far stronger," he said.

EU foreign ministers are also likely to sign off on further sanctions against Iran, including against entities involved in the distribution of weapons both in the region and to Russia, to fuel its war against Ukraine.

Foreign ministers will also look at ways to tackle countries and corporations who have been helping Russia evade Western sanctions, including those facilitating Moscow’s vast fleet of so-called shadow tankers shipping oil around the globe in breach of Western sanctions.

Diplomats also say ministers will look at ways to get around Hungary’s continuing hold up of financial support to Ukraine, both at EU and G7 level, as the country braces itself for Russia’s determination to destroy civilian energy infrastructure as winter approaches.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy will attend the meeting of foreign ministers as part of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's ongoing bid to develop closer ties with the EU.