Shannon makes us complicit in Trump and Israel's illegal war
The Government has continued to allow US military use of Shannon Airport, which has become a de facto forward operating base for US military operations in recent decades.
Over two weeks have passed since the illegal US-Israeli assault on Iran, which has ignited a regional war with global ramifications.
Since then, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee, as well as various Government TDs, have refused to categorically condemn these actions, or to categorise them as illegal.
As the war expanded, the Unifil mission in Lebanon came under Israeli fire. Although the Taoiseach "strongly condemned" the attack, he failed to name the aggressor, while Ms McEntee issued a statement that first mentioned "Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel", before going on to "condemn the disproportionate Israeli response", leaving the reader none the wiser as to who actually carried out the attack.
This failure to call out blatant violations of international law, and name those responsible for them, highlights precisely why we cannot trust the Government to decide on overseas troop deployment, and underscores why we must protect the Triple Lock.
If the Government can’t say that a war is illegal, how can it decide whether to deploy troops to it?
The Triple Lock is a safeguard that governs Irish troop deployment overseas. It sets out that for more than 12 troops to be dispatched there must be (1) approval from cabinet, (2) a Dáil Éireann resolution, and (3) the mission must have a United Nations (UN) mandate.
The Triple Lock has served Ireland well, keeping it out of illegal wars. The UN component of it is essentially Ireland saying to the world that it recognises UN authority in matters of international peace and security and has no intention of dispatching troops on operations that fall outside the UN system.
Although legal guardrails around troop deployment make good sense, the Government is in the process of removing them, arguing the Triple Lock is "no longer fit for purpose".
The fact the Government ‘can’t say’ whether an act of aggression was illegal or not, even when the UN has characterised it as such, raises serious questions about the battlefields that this, or any future government, may be willing to deploy Irish soldiers to, if the Triple Lock goes.
The Government’s position may also indicate it is taking direction or bowing to pressure from Brussels or Washington in much the same way events played out regarding the Occupied Territories Bill, with the US ambassador warning there would be "consequences" if it were to enact it.
The Triple Lock is designed to withstand such pressure because, crucially, the alignment of domestic legislation with international law means that regardless of the external pressure bearing down on the Government, Ireland cannot dispatch troops on a military operation unless there is a UN mandate for the mission. Even the Government must see this and appreciate its vital function.
Despite the illegality of the war on Iran, many European leaders have chosen to facilitate rather than restrain US-Israeli actions.
On March 1, Britain, France, and Germany issued a joint statement saying they were willing to "take steps to defend our interests … through … defensive action … working together with the US and allies in the region".
In the days that followed, various European states, including Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain, dispatched warships to the eastern Mediterranean following an Iranian drone strike on a British military base in Cyprus.
Though European statements use words like "restraint" and "de-escalation", these actions speak for themselves, dispelling any notion of a transatlantic split, instead demonstrating that once again European states are prepared to back US actions, even if that means becoming embroiled in an illegal war.
French president Emmanuel Macron recently announced that France would go further by dispatching warships to the Red Sea and potentially the Strait of Hormuz.
The EU has had two naval missions in the region for the past two years and it is, as yet, unclear whether or how these missions may eventually become involved in the war.
Without the Triple Lock, there would be no legal impediment to Ireland deploying alongside our ‘like-minded partners’ on any of these overseas missions.
Meanwhile, at home, the Government has continued to allow US military use of Shannon Airport, which has become a de facto forward operating base for US military operations in recent decades.
International law is clear: "Belligerents are forbidden to move troops or convoys of either munitions of war or supplies across the territory of a neutral power". Permitting the US to do so while it wages an illegal war on Iran, effectively disqualifies the State from enjoying the protections set out for neutral powers under international law.
Iran has also been very clear: it is targeting Cyprus and the Gulf states because they host US or allied military bases. Depending on the direction this war takes and Iran’s capacity to launch attacks, what’s to say that it, or its allies, won’t expand their targets to include other locations in Europe, including Shannon, if the Government continues to allow it to be used as a de facto military base?
In doing so, he will assure President Trump there are no red lines, that Ireland’s subservience to the US will continue, even as its actions set en train an unprecedented moment of global instability. Micheál Martin’s failure to stand up for what is right when it matters most brings shame on all of us and surely marks the lowest ebb for Irish foreign policy since the foundation of the State.
In her statement to mark International Women’s Day, President Catherine Connolly described the acts of aggression as "deliberate assaults on international law", urging that we "name them as such, without euphemism and without equivocation".
She described Ireland as being "uniquely positioned to do precisely that", referencing "our unbroken record of international peacekeeping since 1958, and our decades of commitment to disarmament and non-proliferation". This, she said, "stands as testament to the disproportionate influence a small, neutral state can wield when it acts with integrity and purpose".
Considering the president’s recent election win and the fact her campaign centred on the importance of preserving peace and strengthening neutrality, we can safely assume she speaks for the Irish people on these matters, particularly since opinion polls consistently show overwhelming support for neutrality.
At this moment of heightened global instability and the normalisation of war and genocide, the Government would do well to reflect on President Connolly’s message.
- Niamh Ní Bhriain is a research associate at the Transnational Institute
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