Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has criticised the Irish Government for voting against a motion, at the recent International Atomic and Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting, which called on Israel to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and open its nuclear sites to IAEA inspection.<\/p>\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe, speaking after he received an answer to a Parliamentary Question he tabled on the issue, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the IAEA General Conference in Vienna a motion was tabled which detailed \u201cconcerns about Israeli nuclear capabilities. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe motion urged Israel to sign the NPT and open its nuclear facilities and weapons development to IAEA supervision.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a matter of record and well known that Israel is in possession of nuclear weapons and it has jailed citizens for leaking the extent of its nuclear weapon development programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis motion, brought by 18 member states, was rejected by 58 votes to 45 with 27 countries abstaining. <\/p>\n
\u201cIreland was one of the countries to vote against this proactive motion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Crowe continued:<\/p>\n
\u201cAchieving a world free from nuclear weapons has been traditionally a long-standing priority for Ireland and it was the first State to sign the NPT in 1968. <\/p>\n
\u201cYet unbelievably this Government voted against encouraging a nuclear state to sign the NPT and spread its universality. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt would appear to me to be another capitulation to Israel and double-standards being applied once again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIrish Governments traditionally took a stand of working towards a nuclear weapons free Middle East, but this Government to their shame, voted en bloc with other EU States to allow Israel keep its secret nuclear weapons programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn response to a PQ I tabled on this issue the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, stated that Ireland voted against this motion because it is hoped that a Conference on a Weapons of Mass Destruction-free zone in the Middle East might be held sometime in the distant future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis position is simply not good enough. Ireland needs to be supporting the universality of the NPT, calling on all Member States to sign it, and not allowing double standards for any country.<\/p>\n
\u201cA worrying trend is beginning to develop in this Government\u2019s foreign policy. It refused to vote in favour of a motion criticising Israel over its Gaza operations at the UN Human Rights Council, and now it has voted against this motion. Both times it voted en bloc with EU members.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has criticised the Irish Government for voting against a motion, at the recent International Atomic and Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting, which called on Israel to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and open its nuclear sites to IAEA inspection. Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,48,137,94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-department-of-foreign-affairs-and-trade","category-israel","category-npt","category-nuclear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1883,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882\/revisions\/1883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}