Dockrell criticises Connolly decision to accept Iranian ambassador credentials

Fine Gael councillor Maurice Dockrell has said that the government’s decision to accept the credentials of the new Iranian ambassador is “a deeply disappointing step.”

Dockrell said, “I represent the Blackrock ward within Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. This is perhaps Ireland’s most liberal constituency. The continued presence of this embassy on Mount Merrion Avenue, within Blackrock ward, flies directly in the face of everything our local community holds dear.”

“Last week’s confirmation that President Catherine Connolly has accepted the credentials of Ambassador Eshagh Alhabib at Áras an Uachtaráin is both premature and unnecessary,” he said.

“There is no possible foreign policy gain for Ireland, nor any downside to refusing accreditation. The formal ceremony was originally postponed in January due to the severe crackdown by Iranian authorities on nationwide demonstrations that resulted in an estimated 40,000 deaths of unarmed civilians. Since that time, the domestic situation in Iran has not stabilised in a manner that justifies normalisation. What has changed in the last six months? The state-sponsored slaughter has not ceased. Executions have accelerated. The Islamic State continues to rely on arbitrary trials and severe human rights violations to suppress dissent. To grant full diplomatic standing to the regime’s emissary at this juncture overlooks these ongoing human rights violations,” the Fine Gael councillor asserted.

Dockrell claimed, “while maintaining channels of communication is a standard aspect of international relations, this situation requires a different standard.”

“The Islamic Republic is not merely a state with different customs or competing national interests. It is a clerical dictatorship operating as a global enterprise of terror. That the Islamic Republic’s praetorian guard, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC), has been designated as a terrorist entity by the European Union should carry clear consequences for how its state representatives are received. By providing full accreditation, Ireland is offering a veneer of legitimacy to an administration actively engaged in state-sponsored violence.”

Dockrell said, “there is a serious and persistent fear among the Iranian Irish community that the IRGC continues to operate from within the embassy itself.  I have been contacted by members of the Iranian diaspora who feel utterly let down by this supine act of appeasement. Some of those I have spoken to have either suffered themselves directly at the hands of the Islamic Republic or have had friends and relatives tortured, raped or murdered.”

“Moving forward with standard diplomatic pageantry while these blatant human rights violations continue is highly problematic. Ireland had an opportunity to provide firm leadership within the European Union by standing consistently with those advocating for fundamental democratic freedoms, as we have done elsewhere. We could have demonstrated that a small nation built on the struggle for self-determination stands firmly with those fighting for democracy. We could and should have led with courage, not settled for business as usual.”