Tánaiste not ruling out possibility of chartering flights to evacuate Irish citizens if required
Lieutenant General Seán Clancy was speaking alongside Tánaiste Micheál Martin at the RACO conference in Co Carlow today where he told reporters that all locations where Irish troops are stationed in Lebanon have enough supplies for the time being. He added that it is up to the force commander at each location to decide when the replenishment of these crucial supplies is required.
“Part of our mitigations in advance of this escalation was of course to have supplies for 30 days plus available in all locations of the Irish personnel overseas,” he said.
“The last couple of days have of course initiated that supply chain. We have ample supply of water and food and common necessities available at this time and of course as we go through, day by day, the force commander will, in time, decide what time replenishment of those resources will be.
“But we have ample supply as it stands at this point in time in each location.”
Israeli ground forces have been clashing with Hezbollah fighters in the region where Irish peacekeepers are stationed in Lebanon. As a result, Irish troops have been forced to hunker down in bunkers as the conflict escalates.
However, there are still no plans to withdraw Irish troops from Lebanon, but Tánaiste Micheál Martin reiterated that the safety of Irish troops is of “number one priority”.
“We are part of a wider force made up of quite a number of troop contributing countries,” said Mr Martin. “I just met with the President of Vietnam yesterday, we are all part of wider UN peacekeeping in different parts of the world and so we operate under that common command.
“But we will work with the authorities, keep everything under review in terms of how the situation progresses. But force protection is our number one priority. Our fundamental focus is on the protection of our troops on the ground and of our people on the ground given what is happening.”
Despite the increasingly volatile situation Irish peacekeepers have found themselves in, Lt Gen Clancy said “morale remains high” among the troops.
“Having spoken directly to the battalion commander out there, the morale is good, spirits are good, people are very resolute in their role, in their responsibilities and their duty and are quite vigilant in maintaining that,” said Lt Gen Clancy.
“The resilience of the soldiers there is extraordinary. In extraordinary circumstances they are carrying out their duties to the upmost,” he said.
As for Irish citizens trapped in Lebanon, the Tánaiste said Ireland will charter flights to Lebanon if needs be.
“We have advised all Irish citizens for a number of months now to leave Lebanon. We were always concerned that the situation would turn for the worst. We are scenario planning and will be taking a number of measures to help Irish citizens, all those who want to leave, to leave and we will have further details on that later,” Mr Martin said.
“We will work in coordination with European Union member states in respect of helping civilians leave. At the moment, there are very few commercial flights, but the airport is still operating. If we need to charter [flights] we will and we have taken preparatory steps on all of those fronts, but we will work with other member states and we will coordinate our activities because Europe works in consort together now and Ireland and the UK, being close neighbours, we generally work together on matters of this kind.”
