Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said Shannon Airport is not being used to assist the US war in Iran and the Government has no evidence that weapons and supplies for the US attacks are being transported through Irish airspace.
However, the Taoiseach admitted it was difficult to “intervene” or “investigate” if there were any “transgressions” of rules prohibiting such activity by the US military.
The Taoiseach was speaking in Philadelphia on Sunday during the second day of his United States visit in advance of travelling to Washington DC where he will meet US president Donald Trump at the White House on St Patrick’s Day.
“Shannon is not being used,” said Martin. “I just want to make that point. Shannon is not being used for those purposes.”
He said that there had been “repeated attempts to conflate Shannon with both the war [in Iran] and Gaza, which was absolutely false.”
He said that “false claims” about weapons passing through Shannon were part of a “continuing narrative from certain quarters, politically within Ireland, which I think will damage Shannon, if that kind of argument continues”.
The Taoiseach said that there was a “need to be realistic in the modern era”.
He said there were “established rules in terms of airspace and the utilisation of airspace. But again, we haven’t any strong evidence that our airspace has been used for any attacks on Iran.”
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He said there was “international law governing airspace” and that the State also had “arrangements made in terms of the rules and the framework by which you can fly through Irish airspace.”
However, he admitted, that “the capacity to investigate that or to intervene if there’s transgression is challenging and problematic”.
The ongoing conflict in Iran is the backdrop for the Taoiseach’s St Patrick’s Day visit to the US and his meeting with Trump.
He has repeatedly said the Republic believes in international law and supports the principles of the UN charter, but has avoided being drawn on whether the US and Israeli attacks on Iran are illegal under international law, as many critics have asserted.
Asked if there was a difference between his statements and the messages from President Connolly on the issue, Martin replied: “The Government and successive governments have been committed to the international rules based order … And we have been very critical of the fact that we haven’t been able to get reform of, particularly the security council of the United Nations and to get a broader membership of that security council … We’re multilateralists at our core.”
Martin also said that there remains a “standing invitation” to Trump to visit the Republic. But the Taoiseach had no information on whether the president would visit next September, when his Doonbeg golf course hosts the Irish Open championship.
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“We’ve no hard information in relation to that,” he said.
After walking in the Philadelphia St Patrick’s Day parade, Martin travelled to Washington for a reception hosted by Irish Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason.
The Taoiseach is scheduled to attend several business events in Washington on Monday. And in the evening, he will attend the Ireland Funds dinner, one of the biggest events in the Irish-American calendar.