"The world is not doing enough" to end violence in Middle East, Taoiseach says in US

Taoiseach Simon Harris again raised the matter of the situation in the Middle East during the second day of his US visit on Thursday, October 10.

"In Ireland, we believe in bringing hope and history together," Harris said during his remarks at Georgetown University in Washington, DC on Thursday.

"We believe that peace is always possible. We have to.

"And when we speak about the terrible conflict ongoing in the Middle East, we're doing so from a perspective of watching our own history reflected back at us and remembering our own story of suffering.

"It is the faces of our children that we see crying out to be saved.

"It is the voices of our ancestors that we hear rebuking us for not doing more.

"Every day, we watch with absolute horror as the innocent are punished for the sins of others, and we relive, over and over and over again, our own country's traumatic past.

"I have repeatedly, and do so again today, condemned the barbaric terrorist attacks which took place just one year ago in Israel.

"But the world can no longer watch as the lives of innocent children and people are maimed, killed, and threatened daily.

"The world can no longer ignore the piercing cries of countless children.

"And Ireland will always be honest with its friends. The world is not doing enough to bring this violence, devastation, and bloodshed to an end.

"It's no longer enough to just say you want a ceasefire; every lever at our disposal must be pulled in the name of peace."

The Taoiseach spoke at Georgetown University the day after he had a private, bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden at The White House.

The Department of the Taoiseach had announced in September that Harris had accepted an invitation from the White House to visit in October to mark 100 years of diplomatic relations between Ireland and the US.

The original plans included an event - understood to be a reception to mark the centenary in the Rose Garden at the White House - after the meeting between the two leaders, but President Biden nixed it on Monday in light of Hurricane Milton's imminent landfall in Florida.

Following his engagement with the President on Wednesday, the Taoiseach made it clear that the Middle East was a large part of their meeting, which reportedly lasted just under an hour.

The meeting took place not long after Biden spoke with the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu.

Harris told reporters on Wednesday evening: "It's for the President to speak to his conversation with the Prime Minister of Israel, but I'm very clear after my conversation with President Biden that when he spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu today that it was a very serious conversation of substance about bringing about a cessation of violence.

"Obviously, I made it clear to the President, the Irish view - it's a view I make clear in public and private - that all countries should be doing everything within their capacity to stop the violence.

"Of course, in relation to the United States, that does involve the issue of arming and providing arms and munitions.

"But, I have to say quite honestly, I've left the Oval Office clear in the view that President Biden had a very important conversation with the Prime Minister of Israel today and I really hope that that yields significant results because the current situation - the killings, the bombings, the maimings - it cannot continue. It's utterly disproportionate.

"I again made the point to the President that Ireland, of all countries, knows that the only way you bring about peace is through dialogue and a political process."