{"id":466915,"date":"2026-05-25T23:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T23:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/466915\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T23:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T23:53:10","slug":"mcentee-expresses-deep-regret-over-non-renewal-of-eu-mediterranean-naval-mission-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/466915\/","title":{"rendered":"McEntee expresses \u2018deep regret\u2019 over non-renewal of EU Mediterranean naval mission \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Defence Helen McEntee<\/a> has described the non-renewal of a United Nations<\/a> Security Council (UNSC) mandate for EU<\/a> Mediterranean naval mission Operation Irini as \u201ca matter of deep regret\u201d. <\/p>\n

In a statement on Monday, the Minister said the mission is \u201cundertaking very valuable work in the Central Mediterranean Sea\u201d.<\/p>\n

She also said Irish Defence Forces<\/a> members, across the services, benefit from taking part, \u201cmost particularly in terms of air and naval service<\/a> focus and opportunity\u201d. <\/p>\n

Operation Irini is focused on enforcing an arms embargo on Libya<\/a>. Its main purpose has been stopping and inspecting ships that may be trafficking arms in the region. <\/p>\n

Ireland currently has four personnel deployed on the mission, whose participation is contingent on a UN mandate, which is central to Ireland\u2019s engagement in these types of EU security operations. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, and despite clear support among Member States and the European External Action Service for the continuation of Operation IRINI, the absence of a UN mandate means Ireland cannot continue to participate, thus requiring the withdrawal of Defence Forces personnel from the mission, as I advised the D\u00e1il earlier this month,\u201d McEntee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis situation and the necessity to withdraw Defence Forces personnel from this mission illustrates clearly the constraints in which we have to operate because of the requirements of the Triple Lock.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Minister highlighted the participation of the L\u00c9 William Butler Yeats, a patrol vessel of the Irish Naval Service, on Operation Irini in the summer of 2023. She said it provided \u201ca significant contribution to the operation\u201d and a \u201cvaluable experience for our sailors\u201d. <\/p>\n

McEntee added she has been \u201cconsistently very clear\u201d that any considerations on engagement in international peacekeeping \u201cshould be within Ireland\u2019s exclusive sovereign control\u201d and that decision making on this should be within the remit of the Government and Oireachtas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Defence Helen McEntee has described the non-renewal of a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) mandate for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13308,5148,1556,61,60,4187,67536,43,23242],"class_list":["post-466915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-defence-forces","tag-european-union","tag-helen-mcentee","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-naval-service","tag-libya","tag-news","tag-united-nations-un"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}