President Michael D Higgins has accused Israel of leaking a congratulatory letter he wrote to the newly elected president of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian.
Mr Higgins was criticised last month by some politicians for the letter, a copy of which originally circulated on social media.
The letter outlined Mr Higgins’s view that stability and co-operation and the peaceful resolution of disputes “have never been more important across the whole Middle East region”.
“Iran with its long tradition of culture will play a crucial role in achieving this,” he noted.
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The Israeli embassy said the letter could have been an opportunity to condemn Iranian funding of terrorism and incitement of “Jihadi terrorist organisations like Hizbullah, Hamas and the Houthis”.
Speaking in New York on Sunday, where he addressed a United Nations event, Mr Higgins said his letter “was a standard one I have written to many heads of state, and I stressed in it the importance of peace in the region, and the importance as well of diplomacy returning in relation to the resolution of disputes and so forth”.
Asked if he knew how the letter got out, he said: “I do indeed. It was circulated from the Israeli embassy.”*
He said he had “no idea” how this came about.
The Israeli embassy in Dublin responded to the accusation on Sunday night. It said: “This baseless accusation is highly inflammatory and potentially slanderous and the embassy rejects it completely. The fact remains that the letter was written and therefore it is the burden of the author to defend its content, which did not mention the threat Iran poses in the region, that it calls for Israel’s destruction, that it arms and funds terrorist organisations like Hamas and Hizbullah, not to mention the violations of human rights against its own citizens.”
On Sunday night the President’s spokesman said the exchange of letters upon the coming to office of a new head of State is standard diplomatic practice for countries which share diplomatic relations. As is usual practice, the letter in question was drafted based on material supplied by the Department of Foreign Affairs and issued via standard diplomatic channels. Such letters have been sent to incoming presidents of Iran for a number of decades.
In response to questions, the President’s spokesman indicated his view that this standard diplomatic letter had been circulated over the summer and presented as being something out of the ordinary. The President made no accusations of a leak, he solely referred to the letter being circulated, he said.
Asked about the President’s comments on Israel and the letter to Iran, Taoiseach Simon Harris said: “I have no evidence or information as to how a letter written by the President of Ireland to the president of Iran came into the public domain, none whatsoever.
“What I do know as a statement of fact ... is that the Israeli embassy did comment on his letter on a number of occasions. The point I am making is that you would imagine that the government of a country that is carrying out a humanitarian catastrophe that has seen thousands of children killed would have better things to be doing than parsing the words of our President.”
Earlier in New York the President said he did not believe the Irish housing and homelessness crisis was linked to rising immigration levels, following comments by Taoiseach Simon Harris that immigration levels are having an impact on homeless numbers.
Mr Harris in a Sunday newspaper interview said the “very serious volume of people coming to the country is now having a real impact”.
“People understand the fact that homelessness numbers are heavily impacted by the fact we are seeing many people seek protection in our country, seek asylum in our country and many people come from abroad hoping to have a new future in Ireland and immigration, it has many, many pluses, but it has had a challenge there,” Mr Harris told the Sunday Times.
Mr Higgins was asked, following his UN address, if he believes the homeless crisis has been caused by immigration.
“No, I do not. I also have a very definite view that I expressed before in relation to the approach to housing. I think that the approaches so far have been both limited and damaged by the fact that they’re all responses to the market.
“It is, to me, inconceivable that the State would own land. The State would have a reputation of producing building workers, that it is open to getting workers from abroad for other purposes, and that you still wouldn’t, in fact, be directly building houses, but I’m not in government as I will, no doubt, be reminded. And the fact is, I’m not responsible for housing policy, but the views I expressed then, I would be expressing them stronger now.”
The Taoiseach’s comments were also seized upon by Opposition parties. Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon said Mr Harris “should now clarify his comments and correct the record”.
“The Taoiseach is entitled to his opinions, but he is not entitled to his own facts. The fact is that those seeking international protection are not counted in the monthly homeless numbers. It is only those living in emergency accommodation who are counted in those figures.”
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy branded the Taoiseach’s comments as “cynical, untrue and dangerous”.
Latest figures indicate more than 14,400 people are homeless.
Asked how he would characterise the Government’s handling of the housing crisis, Mr Higgins said he wouldn’t comment on any particular government.
However, when it was put to him that it was an abject failure to have thousands of homeless families, he said: “There’s no doubt whatsoever that as one looks at it ... I have to answer the question properly now, it has failed in many dimensions. The planning is a disaster. There aren’t enough planning officers working for the local authorities.”
He also said some State housing interventions were designed to “seduce the market”.
Last night, the Taoiseach doubled down on the comments he made linking the housing and homelessness crisis with rising immigration levels.
Speaking ahead of a week of engagements at the United Nations in New York on Sunday night, he said the statistics are there to back up his claims.
“I did absolutely make the point that there is no doubt that there is a link between the migration challenge we face and the homeless challenge – although not the entirety of the homelessness crisis, of course not.
“But if you look at the figures, for example, for the month of July in Dublin, the single biggest reason people gave for presenting at the Dublin homeless services was exiting direct provision. And if you look at the figures for Dublin over the summer months ... you will see that around 20 to 24 per cent of people who present come from countries outside the European Economic Area, and I think around a similar percentage present from either the UK or the EU,” Mr Harris said.
“So the point I was making, and I stand by it, is that over the last number of years, we’ve seen a growing population. Over the last number of years, we’ve seen many people come to our country. I did point out in that interview and reiterate again today, immigration is a good thing. Our country benefits from immigration, but it is important to unpack an issue when you want to try and bring about solutions to it.
“There is absolutely no doubt that a rising population and a rising number of people coming to our country, of course, has an impact on supply. Of course, that’s not the fault of anybody. It’s not to apportion blame, and it’s certainly not to apportion blame to vulnerable people. But the figures speak for themselves, and the data is there for all people to see.”
* This article was amended on 23/09/24 to clarify Mr Higgins’ comment to reporters. He said “it was circulated from the Israeli embassy” rather than “it was certainly the Israeli embassy”, as had initially been reported.
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