 Ychydig ymgyrch yn ymhyrch gyda'r mater i newid i ddim yn y Llywgr Rhaid Wael, ystyried am y deadliad Frys-Gerion Michael Beary, eich cyfeilio â chi, a'r気nod hynny a ddiddordeb yn clwydoedd ar gyfer ei rhoi arno ar ei rôl ar yr Unedig Dynol. Roeddwn i'n ymhyrch chi'n ystyried, rydych chi'n sebydd. Rydyn ni'n wedi'u lleirahono ar gywe'r unedig gyda'r unedig ymhyrch ar yr unedig yma. the 60th anniversary of Ireland's involvement in peacekeeping. It was only three years after we joined the UN that we started peacefulkeeping. Our involvement in peacekeeping operations and we sent a small army contingent to Lebanon in 1958 and since then there have been something like 70 thousand tours of duty by Irish Defence Force personnel across the world. Europe to Asia to the Middle East and Africa. This has been the Irish military involvement and defence force involvement in peacekeeping has been a major plank of Irish foreign policy. It has meant that we have taken part in missions that have promoted our particular foreign policy objectives of peace, security, conflict prevention and have done that consistently for the last 60 years. I think that Tishuk said that not one day had passed when he was in the UN last year celebrating the peacekeeping 60th anniversary. He said not one day had passed where there wasn't an Irish peacekeeper somewhere in the world which is an incredible achievement and an unbelievable tradition and certainly in Irish foreign policy practitioners abroad have been very well aware of how that has supported Irish foreign policy. It's also necessary to pay tribute to the number of peacekeepers who have given their lives while on peacekeeping missions. 88 Irish peacekeepers have lost their lives and have not come back and also to families. But somebody who is a wonderful example of the dedication that Irish defence forces have given to peacekeeping is Major General Michael Beary. He joined the defence forces and he's had a long and distinguished career since 1973 when he first joined. As general officer commanding second brigade since 2013 he served in a wide variety of assignments and had several staff and command officer appointments. He was previously director of training for the Irish defence forces and comadant of the military college which I think as you mentioned provides you with the background to deal with pretty well anything in the defence forces. In particular he spent 12 years on overseas deployments including in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, Lebanon, Uganda and Somalia. He was in liaison team leader with the international security assistance force in Afghanistan and from 2011 to 2013 he commanded the European Union training mission firstly in Uganda and then in Somalia. But in particular his last major assignment was as head of UNIFIL. Where he commanded he took over in May 2016. He was appointed by the then Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as head of mission and force commander in UNIFIL. At the head of 10,500 troops from 40 countries with the headquarters in Nakura with the full UN mandate and I'm sure he will tell us of his experience there. Also in particular during his time at UNIFIL Major General Barry was known well to take a proactive approach which enabled the mission to fully undertake its important mandate which of course is to restore peace and security in the region. I think it was a case that in Lebanon there had been peace for 10 years and one of your well known attempts was that no Lebanese child should have to experience war and certainly you contributed hugely to that. So we look forward to hearing from you. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Chairperson, your Excellency, Mary Cross, an old friend of mine from Brussels days. Members of the IEA, the International Institute for European Affairs, distinguished ambassadors, distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen. I'm not sure whether we're on peacekeeping today or backstopping but I'll try and stick to the peacekeeping which is probably I know more about. Thank you for inviting me to speak. It represents for me a good opportunity to address you while I remain at least somewhat current from my command of UNIFIL and also from command of the European Union CSDP mission back in 2010 to 2012. I think firstly as peacekeeping is our major topic today I would just like to mention the tragic loss of life in the Addis Ababa air crash including the loss of 22 UN. It seems you know it's still been worked out but it seems 22 UN personnel lost their lives and including our own world food program, aid worker Michael Ryan. So Eryeshtey, Garev and Annamaka. I commence with my personal perspective on UN peacekeeping operations with a small tour of the crisis management horizon and then followed by a more in depth view of our Ireland's involvement in the Middle East and of course with Lebanon. The UN has entered a period of significant adjustment. If we go back to September 2015 the then Secretary General of Ban Ki-moon commented on the critical need for change in the high level independent panel on peace operations or otherwise known as the HIPPO report when he said that we must harness the full range of tools available. Political security, development, human rights and humanitarian and we need to change the way in which we do business within and across that range. So I think probably that marks out the latest the latest move towards change within the United Nations. I would suggest that peacekeeping now does rest in a period of uncertainty. There are questions been asked by the international community. There is questions over commitment to operations reflected in an ever tightening budgetary environment. And we should always remember that it is one member of the 193 UN states that funds 22% of the overall UN budget and 28.4% of the peacekeeping budget and that of course as you know is the US. The rules based international order based on effective multilateralism cannot be taken for granted in this context. Given the particular trend that we have at the moment towards isolationism, towards populism on the left and right, towards we have the rise of nationalism. So all of these are in the mix. However instability does remain very much endemic worldwide. It has not gone away to quote somebody famous. In Africa we have the DRC, we have CAR, the Central African Republic. We have of course Mali which is very volatile and we are now witnessing spreading Islamist militancy in Bukini Faso south of Mali. In the Middle East we have Yemen which as you know is very close to famine at one point. We have Syria and we have other areas where there is major difficulties. Central America of course Venezuela is just bubbling over. These are all issues and challenges for the UN into the future. And these are challenges that the UN including Ireland will be asked to address at some point. The UN has been subjected to criticism from many quarters. And an unfortunate simple new phrase has entered the lexicon surrounding the deployment of peacekeeping operations. A UN mission should do no harm. Which is at some remove from the UN charter and the ideal of nations banding together to promote peace worldwide. This of course has resulted from some poor UN experiences in Africa with sexual exploitation and abuse. And in Haiti with the introduction of infectious disease. UN casualties in the meantime have spiked since 2013. Over 205 personnel have died in UN peacekeeping missions through acts of violence. That's more than during any other five year period in UN history. This spike in violence against UN personnel has prompted the completion of you may have heard of it. The left in general Santa Cruz report. And in the report he stated and I quote. The United Nations has not fully adapted to modern hostile operational environments and security council mandates. The United Nations lacks a conceptual approach as certain missions operate outside the governing principles of peacekeeping. Which are consent impartiality and the use of force. The UN also lacks required supporting skill sets and resource processes. And mindset for delivering peace operations in modern complex conflicts environments. And forceful security council mandates. So I think he was very frank and open and did cause quite a stir with that report in UN circles. And really has caused pause for thought. When we look at the UN today there's over 106,000 civilian and military personnel dispersed among 15 UN missions. At a cost of 7 billion. And why that might sound like an enormous figure it is less than 0.5% of worldwide military spending. So in that context it is not a major figure. The UN the EU itself has 17 military and civilian missions deployed worldwide. With approximately 7,000 personnel. This represents a significant international commitment by both the EU and the UN to peace worldwide. However a significant challenge for the UN has been the non-engagement in UN peacekeeping operations by European countries. And I think I can accept Ireland from that. But we're only 7% of UN troops are provided by Europe. And a significant proportion of them were represented in UNIFIL with 14 EU countries. Why do we have such low representation? Why is the EU such low representation? I think firstly the Rwanda and Srebrenica disasters still impact the thinking of some European countries. And of course we have the huge political difficulty that arises for European countries if they have to accept fatalities in such missions. One commentator has noted that the public in any European country does not want their children to die for Juba, Bamako or Goma. So perhaps that's something for us to reflect upon. Ireland has been proactive and suggested a new initiative on rotation cycles or deeper cooperation between European countries in contributing to peacekeeping operations. No end state has always been a concern for European countries. This long deployment without a certain end date. And particularly when important capabilities are deployed. However, on the other hand, the UN horizon is always different. And they like short term deployments are much more of a challenge for the UN. However, change is being addressed. Secretary General Guterres launched his action for peacekeeping initiative, the A4P. The UN likes acronyms that used to be R2P, right to protect all the will, it's A4P. This time last year and effective from the first of January this year. UNHQ peace and security architecture is now reconfigured in a new department of peace ops, DPO, in the Department of Political and Peace Building Affairs, DPPA. With the intention to deliver more regionally integrated political strategies and improving linkages with regional partners such as the African Union and the European Union. Of course time will reveal if such initiatives have a real impact. Just on the importance of EU involvement, the EU countries, both NATO and partners, provide military skills at a high level. But also, and more importantly, they provide incredible political and diplomatic weight. This was my experience particularly in UNIFIL, where the parties would always listen to countries like Spain, like Italy, like France, when they would speak. So that does add considerably to the achievement, if you like, of the mission. This really provides a nice entry point for me to explore UNIFIL and the Middle East with you. Touching into Lebanon, Lebanon at the moment, historically, is enjoying a purple patch. South Lebanon is currently playing out an uncharacteristic role in a period of unprecedented calm, with gentle winds blowing through Tyre, Binsha Bail and Sidon, while perfect storms, including Syria, Yemen, Libya, surround them. So my personal introduction to Lebanon was the 1982 war, and the contrast with my recent and final deployment could not be more pronounced. During the last two years, the Lebanese have successfully held local elections, they've framed an electoral law with proportional representation, they've held general elections on the 6th of May 18, and managed following a significant time delay to form a government. For a country with 18 different confessions and major external influencers, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, that is no mean achievement. However, corruption, provision of basic services, over a million Syrian refugees, in addition to the resident Palestinian refugee population, placed great strain on this embryonic institutional framework. In my interactions with the Lebanese government, memories of the 15-year civil war and conflicts with Israel helped greatly to reduce tensions and temper exchanges within the government itself. Hezbollah continues to grow in power, and in the general elections Hezbollah and Amal won 28 of the 128 seats available, taking all seats in South Lebanon. So, if you like, the resistance parties, as they're called, Amal and Hezbollah were quite successful in the election. And like Northern Ireland, Lebanon also has a form of identity politics focused on leaders and sectarian groups. Hezbollah militarily, they represent a meaningful deterrent to the IDF, considering their success at frustrating the IDF in the 2006 war and recent war-fighting experience gained in Syria. Additionally, Hassan Nasrallah's public pronouncements, indicating that the next war will be fought in Galilee and Israel itself, were noted very keenly in many of my exchanges with the IDF leadership and obviously produced a significant security concern for Israel. While the situation is relatively calm, the potential for a flare-up along the 118-kilometre blue line is ever present, and constant 24-7-365 liaison along that line of withdrawal by Unifil is imperative, and we've seen a recent example of that at Christmas time with the discovery of tunnels in the area. And again, the liaison system worked extremely hard to take the tension out of that and help the two parties to keep peace. I believe the international community cannot let their guard down regarding this enduring flashpoint. The international community must persevere. Looking for a moment now at Ireland and Unifil, and it's Ireland and Unifil at 41, so this is a UN mission that's determined to hang on for as long as it can, after 41 years since 1973. Let's try and position Unifil, if you like, in the geopolitics of the Middle East, and in the aforementioned context of global peacekeeping. Ireland and Oglig Neheron, Oglig Neheron is the Gaelic version of the Defence Forces, have a long, proud history with peacekeeping. Lebanon, as Mary mentioned, was our first deployment in 1958, following ratification of our UN membership. Unifil itself has 10,500 strong, comprising 42 nations, which give it, if you like, huge international legitimacy. Of that 42, of course, including 14 NATO-stroke EU countries, and the overall budget is £483 million per year. It's unique within peacekeeping operations in that it has a maritime task force. Also within the UN, it is considered a five-star mission. Five stars. It's well resourced, and it comprises pretty well-trained personnel. In May this year, the Irish Defence Forces will be providing a full infantry battalion, 400 strong-approx to the mission, following the withdrawal of our joint partners Finland. I'm proud to say my own son, Howard, who is here at the back, will be a platoon commander with that battalion, so he will keep the family tradition of peacekeeping going. However, we should always remind ourselves that we are sitting in South Lebanon on a major regional fault line. It's rife with many conflict trigger points, traditionally the greatest hotspot in the Middle East. The underlying causes of the indigenous conflict remain unaddressed, and particularly the Palestinian question. And the strategic considerations underlying Unifil's deployment in its current form remain equally valid today and rendered even more complex by the regional conflict. Unifil works well, and just as an aside, the Unifil female strength of 500 was utilized fully, and as much as possible to gain access to the female population within the area of operations. This was very much in accordance with the greater UN and Secretary-General Guterres agenda to mainstream gender and promote more females to leadership positions in her quarters and also in the field. Just to dwell for a moment on the mandate 1701 and more recently 2373, this mandate was adopted in August 2006. It was a comprehensive mandate containing both the military and political aspects, and I would contend, having served there in the mission, that the mandate has been successful in providing the mission with the handrails to maintain stability. Unifil does work closely with the UN Special Coordinators Office, who is responsible for those areas beyond Unifil's remit, providing the overarching objective of addressing the root causes of the conflict and, of course, a long-term solution. The mandate was unanimously renewed in August 2017 and also in 2018. However, in 2017, it was accompanied by a very difficult debate within the Security Council on the actual role of Unifil. Interestingly, from our perspective in Unifil and somewhat bizarrely during this particular period, it was apparent to the Unifil team that we were gaining ground in helping to build resistance to war and I'll come back to this term later in my speech, building resistance to war within South Lebanon. We were seeing growing signs of normalisation in evidence within South Lebanon itself and I will touch on those, the dividends of peace when I come towards the end. I am happy as we go into the Q&A to address any issues around the mandate renewal. I would like to offer two practical insights into Unifil peacekeeping initiatives on my firm belief that a peacekeeping operation cannot be static, must be dynamic and must seek to innovate. So it's not a question of standing still and I certainly, in my role as commanding Unifil, was never going to accept that we were just going to my whole ground and keep the peace. So two initiatives we engaged in, firstly engaging the parties and we all know that a peacekeeping mission like Unifil cannot replace an overall political solution and peace cannot be imposed or enforced, it must actually grow from the parties themselves. So with that, Unifil hosts monthly meetings approximately every five weeks between senior Lebanese armed forces and IDF commanders, they're known as tripartite meetings. And we're both, despite being sworn enemies and being still in a state of war, managed to come together to broker solutions, represented at flag level, Brigadier General level, from both sides, and both parties take part voluntarily in this process. It is a mechanism that the UN is absolutely considering utilising in other conflict areas. So while it can't solve problems, it certainly can manage them and it can manage the peace along the 118 kilometre blue line. Of course backing up the tripartite system, we reinforced the liaison teams, deployed on both sides of the line. And in speaking with IDF personnel, I believe that this has been a great success, particularly around the time of the tunnel issue recently. A major Unifil initiative at the time was to try and resolve a long standing disagreement centered around the IDF need to construct a security wall and of course the Lebanese need to regain land they believe belongs to them, land where in 13 reservation areas where the Armistice line, the 1948 line is separated from the 2000 blue line. So there's long memories in this part of the world, but in any case, that's what we set about trying to solve. With that in mind, there was 19 tripartite meetings held in 2017 which is three times the annual average to try and broker solutions and help to find a common path forward for the two parties. We were very successful in finding the paths forward, in finding the solutions where we fell foul was really, as I reflect on it, was the Lebanese election cycle which happened to be in full flow at the time and really worked against finding an agreement and an accommodation on the issues. Also there was another issue, long standing issue which came into the equation which is the maritime resource issue offshore which is particularly of huge significance to Speaker Naby Berry in Beirut. So touching into that second issue, the maritime question, I believe it provides both opportunities and challenges. The opportunity rests in the potential for it to grow trust between the parties if some path forward can be found. But of course there is also the great possibility that such disputes over resources could lead to greater tensions in the area. This issue, very much the maritime, not part of UNIFIL's mandate which I had to explain to Naby Berry on a number of occasions, but we were drawn into negotiations on solutions. The maritime was drawn into the solutions we were trying to broker for the land side, so the 13 reservations. So we did assist Secretary General, US Assistant Secretary David Satterfield in his endeavours to try and broker an agreement between the two parties. Again, there wasn't any success, but I think these two examples provide a good understanding of the major strategic issues that UNIFIL engaged in or helped to try and resolve. Just to conclude, I mentioned already resistance. This resistance term is a big term in South Lebanon. In fact, the Lebanese take on South Switzerland's enigmatic trilogy is the army, the people, and in lieu of government they put in resistance. UNIFIL, too, also has a different metric, measuring peace by reference to what we termed the Teenager Index, which you touched into, Marie, which puts South Lebanon close now to 13 years since the last conflict, since the 34 day in 2006. South Lebanon is enjoying its purple patch, and we are having teenagers in South Lebanon who have not seen what war looks like, and that is really a great output for UNIFIL. Irish foreign policy and the Irish people have supported peacekeeping since our first deployment, as Marie mentioned in 1958. I believe that peacekeeping is the right way towards settling dispute, despite its detractors. Peace, as I said, cannot be imposed, it must come from the parties. And UNIFIL is proving that where we can secure the commitment of the parties, as I have given evidence of with the regularity of tripartite meetings, that where we can get that commitment to the parties, peacekeeping can be successful and it can deliver. However, the relative calm along the blue line between Israel and Lebanon, it does tend to suggest that UNIFIL is merely a holding operation, and hence the question from the international community of why we should be expending 483 million each year to keep this mission in place. However, I would posit that this holding operation has gained strategic significance in the current regional context, and there is merit in holding the ground when everything around is in free fall. Political movement now as UNIFIL passes the 41 year deployment mark is critical. UNIFIL continues to do its work essentially fire brigading the blue line and ensuring the area of operations is not used to mount aggressive actions against any party. The UN mantra that a peacekeeping operation can never replace political movement is very true in the case of Lebanon and Israel. Difficult conversations will need to take place. Conversations that in some quarters can never be countenanced. But my aforementioned teenage index is the best hope because I believe it is that from that generation that progress can be made. Some commentators contend that the states favour the logic of security and war over the logic of peace. But peacekeeping remains the best path forward. But certainly constant change is necessary. Change that is now ongoing hopefully within the UN to keep the concept fresh and to keep it meaningful. UNIFIL has the greatest number of fatalities of any mission, of any UN mission historically. That figure is 313. Of which Oglig Nahern has the greatest number, 47. 47 soldiers we did not bring home. The 42 nations which UNIFIL have given the gift of peace to the population of South Lebanon for almost 13 years. And such dividends of peace, and I want to reflect on them, include TIR having its best ever tourist season with over 400,000 visitors. Extensive building projects in South Lebanon and farming right up to the blue line. Roshan Ikra being an important Israeli tourist attraction. The caverns at Roshan Ikra. So peacekeeping works and we must persevere. Thank you very much.