{"id":25279,"date":"2025-08-26T22:46:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T22:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/25279\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T22:46:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T22:46:11","slug":"potential-end-of-lebanon-peacekeeping-mandate-brings-focus-on-misuse-of-vetoes-by-us-catherine-connolly-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/25279\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential end of Lebanon peacekeeping mandate brings focus on misuse of vetoes by US, Catherine Connolly says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The potential ending of the mandate for the UN<\/a> peacekeeping mission in Lebanon<\/a> brings focus on \u201cmisuse\u201d of security council vetoes by the US<\/a>, Independent candidate for presidency Catherine Connolly<\/a> has said. <\/p>\n

Speaking at a protest in Dublin held by workers in the Oireachtas broadcasting unit, Ms Connolly said the potential ending of the mandate for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon<\/a> (Unifil) mission could be \u201cvery dangerous\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m seriously concerned about that. I hope the discussion will allow for the mandate to continue,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it brings into acute focus the use of the veto by America, something that has not been discussed in the D\u00e1il at any stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Galway West TD said discussion in the D\u00e1il had rightly focused on Russia\u2019s<\/a> use of the veto, \u201cbut the use or the misuse of the veto by America was never brought into the equation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Israel<\/a> is lobbying Washington to veto an extension to the mandate for the Unifil force in southern Lebanon on the basis that it has failed to disarm the militant group Hizbullah<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Irish peacekeepers have been deployed on a continuous basis as part of the mission since 1978, during which time 47 Irish troops have been killed. <\/p>\n

Ireland and other like-minded countries have argued the peacekeeping mission is vital to stability in the region. It is the Defence Forces<\/a> largest overseas mission, with around 350 members taking part at present. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Lebanon could turn into Gaza without UN peacekeeping force, ex-Defence Forces chief saysOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"OneOne of the armoured vehicles of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon peacekeepers patrols in the Buwayda region, in southern Lebanon by the border with Israel. Photograph: Rabih Daher\/ AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

The UN Security Council was due to vote on renewing the mission\u2019s mandate on Monday, but the vote was delayed to consider a French proposal to extend the mission for a year before transferring its duties to the Lebanese Army. <\/p>\n

Ms Connolly said it was time \u201cmore than ever\u201d to build up the UN as a peace institution. <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course there are problems with the veto and the five permanent members, but the UN was set up after the Second World War to prevent a Holocaust, to prevent slaughter, and now more than ever, to double down on strengthening the UN structures,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly, who has the backing of the Social Democrats<\/a>, Labour<\/a> and People Before Profit<\/a> as well as some left-wing Independent Oireachtas members for her presidential campaign, is waiting to see if Sinn F\u00e9in also endorses her or chooses to run its own candidate. <\/p>\n

She said Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s<\/a> internal process on its presidential campaign strategy had \u201ctaken a little longer than I\u2019d hoped\u201d, but that she respected the party\u2019s position. <\/p>\n

\u201cI made it clear to the Social Democrats and Labour Party from day one I would love their help, but I respect their process and they have to go through their process, and Sinn F\u00e9in are doing that. It\u2019s taken a little longer than I\u2019d hoped, but that\u2019s the process, and I respect that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the ground the feedback from ordinary members in Sinn F\u00e9in and indeed the Labour Party, Social Democrats, People Before Profit, from day one has been very positive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The potential ending of the mandate for the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon brings focus on \u201cmisuse\u201d of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,1921,13,14,6,21029,9171,11,12,15,16,5,21030,59,550,47,18578,7,8,18176,2863,107,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-25279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-catherine-connolly","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-hizbullah","15":"tag-labour-party","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-people-before-profit-alliance","22":"tag-presidential-election","23":"tag-russia","24":"tag-sinn-fein","25":"tag-social-democrats","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories","28":"tag-unifil","29":"tag-united-nations-un","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-world","32":"tag-world-news","33":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}