Shannon Airport is not being used by the United States to transport military supplies to Israel, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
He was speaking ahead of a Dáil motion from People Before Profit (PBP) which calls for Ireland to unilaterally impose sanctions on Israeli politicians due to the bombardment of Gaza and for Shannon Airport to be closed to the US military.
The Israeli defence forces launched a major military campaign against Gaza in the wake of the Hamas attack on civilians in Israel on October 7th.
The PBP motion accuses Israel of a “horrific escalation of violence” and refers to an estimate by the Gaza Health Ministry that 11,000 people have been killed and “close to half” are children.
Israel-Hizbullah close to ceasefire deal, says Israel’s envoy to Washington
Israeli military says it killed October 7th attack suspect who worked for US-based charity
Israeli military continues to warn Lebanese citizens not to return to border villages
Mahmoud Abbas names temporary successor in Palestinian Authority but rejects calls to resign
It argues that Shannon Airport has effectively been a “forward operating base of the US military” since 2002 and says no inspections of US military aircraft have taken place to establish if weapons are being transported to Israel since October.
The motion calls for Shannon Airport to be closed to the US military immediately.
During an interview on RTÉ's The Week in Politics on Sunday, Mr Varadkar was asked if Shannon Airport is being used by the US military to supply military equipment to Israel.
Mr Varadkar replied “no” and added: “You have to receive express permission to bring munitions through any airport in Ireland and they have to be signed off on by the Department of Transport and the Minister for Transport and that’s not happening.”
He rejected Opposition claims that the Irish Government’s actions are not matching its words in relation to the conflict in the Middle East.
He said: “From the very first few days after this phase of the conflict began Ireland took a very clear position that Israel had a right to defend itself, but did not have the right to breach humanitarian law.
“We went out on a bit of a limb in some ways internationally by being among the first countries to call for a ceasefire and we reiterate that call.
“We’ve also been very active in terms of increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza. We’ve done that”.
