{"id":6175,"date":"2026-03-06T06:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/6175\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T06:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:52:15","slug":"pressure-on-government-to-say-attack-by-us-and-israel-on-iran-is-a-breach-of-international-law-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/6175\/","title":{"rendered":"Pressure on Government to say attack by US and Israel on Iran is a breach of international law \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opposition politicians have piled pressure on the Government<\/a> to state that the attack<\/a> on Iran<\/a> by the United States<\/a> and Israel<\/a> amounts to a breach of international law.<\/p>\n

On Thursday Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee<\/a> highlighted how the military action has no United Nations<\/a> mandate. However, she stopped short of explicitly saying this amounts to a breach of international law.<\/p>\n

Speaking during D\u00e1il<\/a> statements on the Middle East conflict McEntee said the military operation by the US and Israel had no authorisation from the UN \u201cnor has any attempt been made to seek such an authorisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cIreland\u2019s position on the use of force outside such a context is well established and known\u201d and \u201call states must abide by international law and the principles of the UN charter.\u201d<\/p>\n

McEntee also said the \u201cpriority must be to quickly end this conflict and for urgent de-escalation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> TD Donnchadh \u00d3 Laoghaire<\/a> said the conflict with Iran \u201cis particularly dangerous\u201d and is \u201cwithout basis\u201d. He urged the Government to call it \u201cfor what it is\u201d \u2013 a \u201cbreach of international law\u201d. \u00d3 Laoghaire said the Government has not \u201cbeen quite so weak as some other European countries\u201d but said others have been \u201cclear what this is\u201d citing Spain and Norway.<\/p>\n

Labour Party<\/a> TD Duncan Smith<\/a> said \u201cthere are no angels or good guys in this war\u201d. He criticised Iran\u2019s government as an \u201cabhorrent regime\u201d and said Israel and the US were breaking international law.<\/p>\n

Smith referred to McEntee\u2019s comments earlier in the debate, saying they were strongest comments she had made and were \u201cde facto saying that the attacks and that the war is illegal without actually using those words\u201d but he added: \u201cIt is important that we use those words.\u201d<\/p>\n

People Before Profit<\/a> TD Paul Murphy<\/a> accused the Government of a \u201cshameful\u201d response to the war and of refusing to say is contrary to international law. He called for Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> not to go to the White House to \u201chand over the bowl of shamrock\u201d on St Patrick\u2019s Day. <\/p>\n

Murphy claimed that the meeting going ahead would allow US president Donald Trump<\/a> to \u201cuse the Irish national day to present himself as a friend of the Irish to greenwash himself and to cover up the war crimes that he\u2019s currently engaged in\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the end of the debate Minister of State Robert Troy called for dialogue and diplomacy.<\/p>\n

He said actions by \u201cmultiple parties\u201d in recent days had \u201cundermined\u201d principles of international law.<\/p>\n

Troy said Ireland\u2019s position on the use of force where there is no UN mandate is that it is \u201cillegal\u201d. He said: \u201cAll states must abide by international law and the principles of the UN charter regardless of who the States involved are.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a press conference in Government Buildings McEntee was repeatedly quizzed on the issue of whether the Government believes the US and Israel have breached international law.<\/p>\n

She said it was clear that the US and Israel did not have a UN mandate and \u201cfor this type of action to take place we believe that they should have that\u201d.<\/p>\n

Put to her that she was stopping short of explicitly saying the US and Israel had breached international law she replied: \u201cI think we can all see the extremely difficult situation in the Middle East, much of which has been caused by Iran.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said Iran had \u201cmassacred its own citizens\u201d and \u201ccontributed to state-sponsored terrorism\u201d. McEntee continued: \u201cWe all want to see an improvement and a change and we want the people of Iran to be able to essentially set out their own destiny. That has not been possible.\u201d <\/p>\n

She added: \u201cAt the same time, it is essential that if this type of conflict is to take place with that overall objective … that it is done so in accordance with the UN\u201d and \u201cwe do not believe that there is UN mandate for this\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked if she was reluctant to say that the US breached international law in advance of the Taoiseach\u2019s St Patrick\u2019s Day meeting with Trump she said White House visit have provided an opportunity to raise concerns over many years. She said the opportunity has always been taken to \u201craise very complex and challenging issues and I believe that this St Patrick\u2019s Day visit will be no different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opposition politicians have piled pressure on the Government to state that the attack on Iran by the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[38,3992,3996,394,2056,34,37,48,3994,3998,3997,3995,3999,3993,51],"class_list":["post-6175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-donald-trump","tag-donnchadh-o-laoghaire","tag-duncan-smith","tag-government","tag-helen-mcentee","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-labour-party","tag-micheal-martin","tag-paul-murphy","tag-people-before-profit-solidarity-pbps","tag-robert-troy","tag-sinn-fein","tag-united-states"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116180912941694554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}