Simon Harris, the Taoiseach, and Micheál Martin, the Tánaiste, have expressed their unwavering support for President Michael D. Higgins in his disagreement with the Israeli embassy in Dublin about a letter the president had sent to the recently elected Iranian president, reports RTE.
President Higgins claimed that the Israeli embassy had distributed a letter he had sent to Masoud Pezeshkian when he was the new head of state, during a press conference at the UN in New York.
In response, the embassy stated that it “completely” denied the accusations and described them as “highly inflammatory and potentially slanderous”.
President Higgins was chastised by the Israeli embassy for mentioning Israel’s human rights record and the “threat” it posed in the Middle East in his letter to Iran, reports RTE.
“It is the burden of the author to defend its content, which did not mention the threat Iran poses in the region, that it calls for Israel’s destruction, that it arms and funds terrorist organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah, not to mention the violations of human rights against its own citizens,” the embassy added.
Israel “is continuing to allow [a] horrific humanitarian situation continue” in Gaza, according to the Taoiseach.
“I think the Israeli embassy should be focusing on things other than amplifying, circulating or referencing a letter that does really conform with normal diplomatic protocol between heads of state,” Mr Harris said, reports RTE.
“You’d like to think that Israel would be more concerned with the fact that 14,000 children in Gaza are dead, that at least 20,000 are missing, many presumed dead. Certainly, my focus here in New York is not on an exchange of letters, but is on the fact that there is still a horrific, bloody humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the Middle East,” reports RTE.
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