Financial Times: Ireland takes IDF to task over calls for withdrawal of peacekeepers

JUDE WEBBER RAYA JALABI

Ire­land has rejec­ted Israeli calls for its UN peace­keep­ing troops to with­draw from Lebanon, insist­ing it will not evac­u­ate them even as Israel intens­i­fies its air cam­paign against the mil­it­ant group Hizbol­lah.

Irish Pres­id­ent Michael D Hig­gins cri­ti­cised what he called "out­rageous" threats against the peace­keep­ers from the Israel Defense Forces that "sought to have them evac­u­ate the vil­lages that they are defend­ing".

Ire­land has 347 peace­keep­ing troops in south­ern Lebanon as part of a joint bat­talion with Pol­ish sol­diers. Two of 25 out­posts on the Blue Line in effect divid­ing Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights are under Irish com­mand.

Hig­gins said Israel had deman­ded the entire UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Uni­fil) peace­keep­ing mis­sion in Lebanon "walk away" from the con­flict.

James Browne, a junior Irish justice min­is­ter, said yes­ter­day that Irish troops were "in real harm's way" and the pres­id­ent had been right to speak out. "The UN has made it clear they won't abide the request from the IDF to with­draw," Browne told broad­caster RTÉ.

"We are com­mit­ted to the mis­sion," said Cap­tain Kevin Kenny, a spokes­per­son for Ire­land's Defence Forces.

The Irish taoiseach, Simon Har­ris, is expec­ted to dis­cuss the widen­ing con­flict with Joe Biden when he meets the US pres­id­ent in Wash­ing­ton this week to mark the cen­ten­ary of US-Irish dip­lo­matic rela­tions.

Uni­fil spokes­per­son Andrea Ten­enti said Israel had noti­fied its plan for ground oper­a­tions in Lebanon on Septem­ber 30 and "reques­ted we relo­cate from some of our pos­i­tions", adding: "Peace­keep­ers remain in all pos­i­tions and the UN flag con­tin­ues to fly."

Israel's mil­it­ary said the IDF was in com­mu­nic­a­tion with Uni­fil so they were "not part of this con­flict" and were given warn­ings to make sure "they are not in harm's way when there are clashes with Hizbol­lah".

Irish troops have been serving as peace­keep­ers in Lebanon since 1978 and gov­ern­ment and mil­it­ary offi­cials insist mor­ale is good.

Kenny said they had not come under dir­ect fire but "on occa­sion, and when appro­pri­ate, they take cover in pro­tect­ive install­a­tions [bunkers]".

"We view our pres­ence there as essen­tial. We are the eyes and ears of the inter­na­tional com­munity. Our aim is to provide the space for dip­lomacy to hap­pen and the deliv­ery of human­it­arian aid as neces­sary," he added.

Hig­gins called Israel's demand that Irish peace­keep­ers leave "an insult" both to the UN and to the sol­diers risk­ing their lives. An Irish peace­keeper, Private Seán Rooney, was killed in an attack on a con­voy in Lebanon in Decem­ber 2022.

Declan Power, a secur­ity ana­lyst and former Irish peace­keeper in Lebanon in the 1990s, said if any troops were with­drawn, "some­body would have to come in and fill the gap".

"But when people talk about evac­u­ations, the safest place to stay is in situ unless you're a dir­ect tar­get . . . which the Uni­fil con­tin­gent would not be."