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DEFENCE MINISTER ALAN Shatter has said the Irish troops in the Golan Heights remain fully committed to their task in the UNDOF mission.
The comment comes after 36 soldiers were hit by an unknown blast yesterday morning. It is thought Syrian rebels may have been involved. The troops returned fire and no serious injuries were sustained.
Shatter said he was fully briefed about the Irish troops’ role in the UNDOF mission on Wednesday during his trip to Jerusalem. He spoke with Irish Commanders deployed with UNDOF and the Head of Mission of UNTSO, Ireland’s Major General Michael Finn.
“All issues of relevance to the mission were discussed,” his department said.
“We know that our troops were deployed to the Golan Heights at a time of increased instability but that they are fully trained and equipped to undertake their important duties on behalf of the United Nations. They remain fully committed to this task,” added Shatter.
The Fine Gael TD is currently on a tour of the Middle East. Earlier this week, he visited the Za’atri Refugee Camp in Jordan, meeting with Irish Aid and UNHCR officials there.
(YouTube: Department of Defence – Ireland)
Shatter has also met with the Israeli ministers for defence and justice to discuss security issues in the region, the implications of the Syrian conflict and recent events in Egypt.
Talks also turned to Iran and the prospect for progress in the Israel-Palestine peace process.
“The discussions were a valuable update and perspective on the current difficulties in the region, their impact on those affected and possible future outcomes,” Shatter on the meeting’s conclusion.
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All credit to our soldiers in the Golan, they’re doing a terrific job as always. Thankfully nobody was badly hurt. The nightmare that is Syria and the cheapness placed on all life there, highlights the danger our lads are exposed to. The ever growing threat of Islamic extremists poses a constant danger to all UN troops in the area.
This has the potential to turn into the most dangerous mission that our IDF has been sent on in quite some time. So far, so good. I support their deployment but I’ll be relieved when our contribution is done!
i hope you can see the irony of using the abbreviation ‘IDF’ in relation to our troops being sent to defend israeli occupied territory.
We’re the sandwich between:
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Must be great craic at the UN neighbourhood parties….. No rush on the sausage rolls at least
wow.. irish peace keepers sent to a war zone to protect rupert murdochs and dick Chaneys oil reserves there, awarded free of charge by the Israelis…. well worth dying for I’m sure our minister for zionist profit will agree…. sad day for Ireland… up next, Irelands joining of the zionist EU imperialist army, risking irish army lads lives to increase corporate profits for Halliburton / Chaney/ Murdoch / The Bushs’ etc….
Brilliant last line :-D
@ Jim,
could be worse could be bacon
They chose to be exposed to danger. That is in the job description of anyone joining the army. They chose to fight the battles for who?
For the duly elected government of Ireland, Catherine.
Exactly. Their job is to defend our soil, not risk their lives on soil occupied by a foreign entity.
All credit to the boy soldiers,,because that’s exactly what the majority of the boots on the ground are…America,Britain,France., armies all over the world enlists 18yr old’s upwards because if they understood what they were actually in for…fare play to them in anyway.
you say that like it deserves some sort of respect the “duly elected goverment of ireland” yeah because we all know how they are a decent bunch of lads who have our best interests at heart,you clown !!!
GoverNment, Gerard. At least learn to spell it. Now, who should they take their orders from, if not the goverNment we elect?
What a load of shit! Irish troops are no longer peace keepers. Little do the public know Ireland has given away its neutrality in order to protect the border
of Israel. Led into battle by their fearless leader Alan shatter. Who happens to own the biggest property portfolio of any Irish politician. Primarily based in America. Tell me you can’t see the link here. If America has a problem with Syria let them risk their troops lives instead of Irish citizens who have not caused this matter nor will we benefit by any stretch of imagination.
ok castor i spelled a word wrong,whats your point ??? does it make you feel clever correcting a simple mistake ?? it has no baring on my point so get over it you arsehole
I think For people who want to see a conspiracy they’ll always see one by them way Shatter doesn’t lead the army and control the government dispite the fevered imaginings of you
Give us a favour get out of Islamic countries and leave them alone. Instead deploy them in finglas lol
Haha I’m loving this news. It’s driving the crusties crazy. Your tax money being used to defend Israel…oh wait you dole scroungers don’t even pay tax.
It must be driving you mad paying taxes so the crustys can protest Israel with a full belly
Not everybody on the dole hasn’t paid taxes, plenty of them on it that contributed to society in their time. Hopefully you won’t fall ill or become jobless or you’ll have to call yourself a crustie
Shatter has no business to put our troops in harms way to protect ground occupied by his beloved Israel, which they illegally settle. The UN general assembly has again called for their withdrawl, reaffirming the principal that Israel cannot acquire land by conflict. Our troops are risking their lives for Israeli expansionism.
Would that be the same UN that authorised both our Syrian and Lebanese deployments, yeah?
Neither of those two deployments put Irish troops in belligerently occupied territory where the occupier is acting contrary to international law.
They are there as impartial observers.
How is it different because the minister has another religious background?
The Irish troops have been there for decades, irrespective of the minister or government in office.
Criticism of Israel is legitimate, spreading hate on the basis of someone’s background never is. Shame on you for these comments.
“They are there as impartial observers.”
They are there to fill the hole left by the austrian troops withdrawing due to their government considering the situation there to be too dangerous.
They are there as impartial observers, like it or lump it.
They are armed peaceeepers, not impartial observers.
If one or more of them die, are you going to attend the funeral to explain the difference between their child dying as a peacekeeper or ‘impartial observer’.
‘Impartial observer’ – brought to you by the people who renamed torture to ‘advanced interrogation technique’
Which the Irish government decided to send to the Golan Heights, not some sort of conspiracy led by a sleeper cell.
The Golan heights is now dangerous because of the Syrian civil war which has evolved into a sectarian Sunni-Shiite conflict.
“The Golan heights is now dangerous because of the Syrian civil war which has evolved into a sectarian Sunni-Shiite conflict.”
Cheers for proving my point jim. Their job is to help keep the peace, hence the name. there is no peace. They should not be there. A point rammed home by the austrians who removed THEIR peacekeeper troops.
ireland hasnt been there for decades !!!
Gerard, for someone who uses so many exclamation marks you really haven’t a clue what you’re talking about. Ireland has had troops in Syria since 1958
in the golan heights ???? i dont think so,they replaced the austrians,if im wrong fair enough i have no problem saying so !!! you should really stick to spelling checks castor, more your line,do you usually you link exclamation to intelligence castor ???
Wow you could not make this up…the Irish Army protecting the Golan Heights on behalf of Israel. Golan is Syrian land illegally acquired by Israel in the 1967 war and there has been several UN mandates for it to be returned, all ignored by Israel. And now our staunchly pro-Israel Minister of Justice has approved for Irish troops to be sent to protect the bounties of Israel’s wars.
One must really ask to where Minister Shatter’s loyalties actually lie, to Ireland or to his ‘homeland’?
Our soldiers are there as impartial observers on behalf of the UN.
LOL!
Impartial observers with guns sent by shatter to fill the gap left by the austrians leaving because it was getting too dangerous for them to act in a peacekeeping capacity.
I would suggest that your tendency towards hysteria would preclude you from taking part should the Irish army ever be so unfortunate as to find you in their ranks.
You realise Syria attacked Israel in the 1967 war, don’t you? Not to mention the countless provocations by the Syrians in the years before that, all in an attempt to cover up their own failings as a country.
And the Israeli government offered to return the Golan heights in return for a peace settlement with Syria – which the Syrian government rejected.
His homeland? Is dun laoghaire now independent?
Or are you suggesting that people with other backgrounds wear a yellow star or pink triangle and live in camps?
No Aunty Jammin’s whine would be extremely useful as an air raid warning
“And the Israeli government offered to return the Golan heights in return for a peace settlement with Syria – which the Syrian government rejected.”
Incorrect. Israel offered to ‘return’ (its not legally theirs to offer to return) MOST of the heights i.e. retain some of it which they are not allowed to do.
Syria was right to refuse.
Lol. Syria should have been told to sod off. They kicked off and were trounced.
Since when are soldiers observers?
“On 6 October 1973, in a surprise joint attack, Egypt attacked Israeli forces on the Suez Canal and in the Sinai while Syria attacked Israeli forces on the Golan Heights. The Israelis stopped the attacks and retook most of the lost ground. Israeli forces then pushed deeper into Syria and Egypt.”
That’s from the university of Wiki so beloved of the crusties. Syria and Egypt started a war and lost and started whinging when they got a good thrashing.
Bingo!
While israel and fans of its lebensraum might consider the occupied territories to be the spoils of war, no other nation, including the US, or the UN, international law, or any other body considers them to be. The principal of no title by conquest is well established.
hahhaha you just got the word crusties from ya mans earlier post !!! you never ever used it before,why are you afraid to use your real name and a picture by the way ???
Yes, werejammin, because no country is allowed to hold on to the spoils of war after having been attacked in the first place. You’d never see France (Alsace-Lorraine), Denmark (Schleswig-Holstein), Poland (South Prussia, Pomorze, Silesia), Russia (North Prussia, Southern Karelia), etc. hold on to spoils of war.
Who started that war don’t understand why Isreal is the only country who is slated for winning a war(s) it didn’t start
Also started the wars in 1948 and 1967 all started to destroy the state of Isreal and all of which helped create the refugee problem
yeah israel didnt start this war,all they were doing is stealing a country and enslaving a people and its ok because god told them they could have it so just chill out everyone,them pesky arabs started it by having the cheek to challenge them and stick up for their own !!!
Which people are they enslaving make up your mind is its a genocide or enslavement can’t be both in fact its neither paliestians have enslaved themselves by the past strange how after insisting how Isreal shouldn’t be allowed to exist now they want the 1967 borders plus Isreal hasn’t said thats impossible they just said Jews are entitled to live there doesn’t mean its has to be Isreal territory for some strange reason muslims are allowed live in Isreal but jews can’t be allowed live in the muslim country of Paliestine
joe who are you talking too ???
Why is this news?, when you sign up to the army i presume you are aware of the job description?
Tw@t
That’s true, and no doubt the soldiers am there families have gone through the potentialities quite thoroughly enforce deployment. That the risk is quantifiable and expected doesn’t mean that incidents shouldn’t be reported.
However this is news because it is newsworthy. It is newsworthy because there is a significant public interest in the Syrian Civil war, because There is an appetite for information about the Irish contingent on UN mission in Golan, because Irish peacekeeping troops came under fire, which is a rare occurrence, and because as a small country, the proportion of people that know or care about someone serving in Golan is quite high.
Well said sir
Mark,
So any incident in a war which only involves service people should not be reported?
Acis, yes that is my opinion, nobody was seiriously injured or killed, thank God. But why is it making the news? Obviously i understand its our own troops, but its like saying a group of fishermen caught a load of fish…that is what they do, that is there job! Im not trying to be smart here, its just my opinion.
Why is there always someone like you complaining “Why is X or Y news?”
You choose to click on the article. Its not like watching it on TV if you have to wait for what you are interested in to come on. Just don’t click if you don’t care.
You are entitled to your opinion on how interested you are or not, but stop wasting your time commenting about it. Stop being an idiot and find something else to comment on.
I wonder were there people like Mark Ryan around in 1916? “Well it’s hardly news that there was a battle at the Somme. News flash: There’s a war on in France. This shouldn’t be in the paper.”
what a stupid point to make,you are some idiot the man clearly explains himself in a reasonable manner whether you agree or not with him and you go and compare a single explosion with no casualties except a scraped knee(back on duty tomorrow) to a battle that saw more than ONE MILLION men either dead or wounded,you fuqing clown
I would like to know what the story is with air support for our troops there. Suppose that yesterday’s attackers had been greater in number, or succeeded in disabling one of the APCs and pinned down the patrol. Is there provision for strikes by aircraft against the militants? What air force provides this? There is a great danger that we could get drawn into conflict here.
I don’t think our troops should be posted to the Golan heights until the civil war is over. Peacekeepers can’t really keep the peace when there’s still a war on.
@ Seamus,
Probably take them too long to get from Baldonnel
:)
No, there’s none. They are the “emergency service”, so to speak, for the observer mission. They’re the ones who get called in when things get unpleasant.
Militants are Syrian citizens. Can you give me a viable reason as to why Ireland is involved. Hired guns protecting Israel paid for by the EU and the Irish tax payer but with no advantage to Ireland or most importantly the citizens of Syria.
Shatter will have the ol paddy Joe out defending Israeli interests in the Golan Heights alright. Tosser
You’re a bigot Irish troops have served on many different UN missions in different countries and never has the minister been blamed before yeah here made all the decisions without the rest of government by the way only all 3 occasions when Syria attacked Isreal it gots arse handed to it and was only to glad 40 years ago to agree to a UN force on its territory
Interesting, Golan Heights is an illegally occupied territory – stolen from Syria by Israel !
Why are the UN being deployed to defend on Israels behalf while Israel refuse to sign the “Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty” ?
The UN are backing a country well known for human rights issues, stock piling nuclear arms, using chemical weapons and invading sovereign states illegally !
The UN has put itself on the front line of a long standing conflict in the middle east and have put themselves on the side of bad guys… something is a miss !
The UN started the problem in the first place.
The UN observed a ceasefire between Syria and Israel for 40 years. That is all and it’s noble work.
I think our lads should have big speakers on top of their transport which at the first sign of trouble would blare out “Ooh ahh Paul mcGrath” and then the enema would know who they were and they would all become great pals and play football in no-man’s land. Most of the Arabs have cousins living in Rathmines and on the SCR in Dublin so they will get along famously.
Why are those Syrians shooting at our lovely soldiers? Don’t they know that the Irish are great craic, loved and revered the world over?
The Irish are no longer Irish when they put on a soldiers uniform.
Fool
Yes Catherine, they become Spanish – it says so in the Bible.
Well why do they have the Irish flag on the left arm of all their shirts and jackets ????
They are more proud of their Irishness than you appear to be Catherine.
Thats for sure ! And im one of them …CATHERINE
Yes Catherine, soldiers are from the moon. Everyone knows that. It’s science.
Between a nail and a hammer! Not a safe place to stand!
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