Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has called on T\u00e1naiste Eamon Gilmore to use the meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers, to seek an EU wide arms embargo against the Egyptian military regime, until democracy is restored in the country.<\/p>\n
Speaking ahead of tomorrow\u2019s meeting of EU Foreign Ministers Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said that the T\u00e1inaiste and the Irish Embassy in Cairo must also do all they can to assist four Irish citizens being held by the Egyptian authorities.<\/p>\n
Deputy Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Irish government took the correct position in relation to the conflict in Syria by backing an EU wide arms embargo for the country. Regrettably France and Britain had other ideas and interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimilarly there is no point in standing on the side-lines and condemning individual actions in Egypt, unless you are prepared to act to bring an end to the violence, and help establish the enabling conditions to restore democracy in Egypt.<\/p>\n
\u201cT\u00e1naiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eamon Gilmore, must use the opportunity of tomorrow\u2019s meeting of EU Foreign Ministers to demand an EU wide arms embargo against the Egyptian military regime, until democracy is restored in Egypt.<\/p>\n
\u201cEU member states collectively sell approximately \u20ac300 million of weapons to Egypt every year. If EU leaders continue to allow these weapons to be sent to Egypt, they are facilitating and condoning authoritarianism and the brutal murder of political activists and civilians.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, I would encourage other countries around the world that are currently supporting the military regime to introduce a similar embargo.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday we have also heard that an Irish diplomatic envoy has been given access to and met with the four Irish citizens being held by the Egyptian authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe T\u00e1naiste should summons the Egyptian Ambassador to Ireland and demand continued and regular diplomatic access to these Irish citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is understandably widespread concern in Ireland for these citizens as the turmoil in Egypt continues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is vitally important that Irish diplomats in Cairo can monitor where the four members of the Halawa family are being held, the conditions they are subject to, if they are safe and well, and when they are due for release from military custody.\u201d<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has called on T\u00e1naiste Eamon Gilmore to use the meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers, to seek an EU wide arms embargo against the Egyptian military regime, until democracy is restored in the country. Speaking ahead of tomorrow\u2019s meeting of EU Foreign Ministers Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,65,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-department-of-foreign-affairs-and-trade","category-egypt","category-foreign-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916","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=916"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":918,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions\/918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}