Irish soldiers will not be sent into a civil war, Coveney insists

Irish troops will not be sent into a civil war in Syria, Minister for Defence Simon Coveney has warned.

He insisted the Government had not yet decided ’definitely’ to go ahead with the rotation of Defence Force personnel to the Golan Heights.

“We are preparing as if we are going to. The troops will continue their training.”

He said that of the troops training for the rotation, only 33 were going on a peace keeping mission for the first time. “There’s a lot of experience there. They’re up for it. They’re well trained. They’re highly professional. They’re great, great people.

“But I need to ensure that we are sending them into a mission that is being managed appropriately in terms of the risk level they will be exposed to.”

During Defence Questions in the Dáil today the Minister said the role of the Defence Forces in the Golan Heights was to observe an armistice between Israel and Syria that happened back in 1974 and "it will continue to be about observing the adherence to that armistice between those two countries".

He said: “We are not moving into the territory of peace enforcement here and under no circumstances am I going to send Irish troops on a peace keeping mission to involve themselves in a civil war and trying to enforce peace on that civil war.”

There was significant structural change to the mission and it was deemed appropriate that the troops on the ground at the moment physically put that change in place because they were much more familiar with the area.

The observation role had been significantly complicated by the civil war in Syria, where he said most of the Golan Height region that was a demilitarised supervised zone is now in the control of rebel forces.

“The medium to long-term goal is to go back, into what was previously a demilitarised zone and observe as we did in the past. There is clearly a temporary and significant setback.”