{"id":398715,"date":"2026-03-22T21:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T21:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/398715\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T21:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T21:19:12","slug":"action-needed-to-prevent-deeper-crisis-government-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/398715\/","title":{"rendered":"Action needed to prevent deeper crisis, Government says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Targeting of nuclear installations in the current conflic<\/a>t in the Middle East<\/a> would mark \u201can extremely dangerous escalation and must be avoided\u201d, the Government has said.<\/p>\n

It has also said urgent action was now needed to prevent the crisis from deepening further and described threats by Iran to international shipping the region as \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Government has urged de-escalation of the conflict to create a space for dialogue.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Sunday afternoon the Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee <\/a>said: \u201cWe are at a dangerous moment, as a growing cycle of escalation and violence takes hold in the Gulf and across the wider Middle East, with ongoing military action by Israel, the United States and Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Iran will completely shut Strait of Hormuz if Trump acts on infrastructure threats, says IRGOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She said while \u201cGulf partners have acted with notable restraint in the face of direct attacks by Iran, the risk of further escalation across the region remains grave\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must all be clear, the obligations of international law apply to all parties and the ongoing loss of civilian life is unacceptable and must end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe targeting of nuclear installations would mark an extremely dangerous escalation and must be avoided.\u201d<\/p>\n

McEntee said threats by Iran to international shipping were \u201cunacceptable\u201d. <\/p>\n

Disruption to these vital routes are already having serious consequences for the global economy, felt most sharply by those least able to bear them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDevelopments in Lebanon are also deeply worrying and reinforce the need to de-escalate, including in order to protect UNIFIL personnel and preserve regional stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are more than 300 Irish troops serving in Lebanon as part of the United Nations\u2019 Unifil mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call on all parties to step back, de-escalate, halt attacks, and create the space for dialogue that can lead to lasting diplomatic solutions\u201d, the Minister said.<\/p>\n

On Sunday Israeli officials said more than 160 people had been injured – some seriously – in Iranian missile strikes on two southern Israeli towns close to a nuclear facility.<\/p>\n

Iranian state TV earlier said the strikes were in response to an attack on Iran\u2019s Natanz nuclear facility on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Targeting of nuclear installations in the current conflict in the Middle East would mark \u201can extremely dangerous escalation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[70421,9,10,6773,11021,6402,181236,11170,179,43063,13,14,6,18929,71,11,12,15,16,8820,825,5,31899,7,8,384,181237,1545,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-398715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-attacks","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-cheap","tag-conflict","tag-cost","tag-costly","tag-drones","tag-economy","tag-expensive","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-middle-east","tag-money","tag-news","tag-nuclear","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-us-israeli-airstrikes","tag-war","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116274919185927221","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398715","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=398715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}