SHANNON AIRPORT is not being used to assist the US war in Iran, the Taoiseach has said.
Speaking to reporters in Philadelphia on Sunday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin (FF) said the Government had no evidence that weapons and supplies used by the US in the attacks have been transported via Irish airspace.
Repeated “false claims” on Shannon Airport being complicit in aiding the war “will damage Shannon,” the Taoiseach warned.
He stressed, “Shannon is not being used. I just want to make that point. Shannon is not being used for those purposes”. The Taoiseach said there had been “repeated attempts to conflate Shannon with both the war [in Iran] and Gaza, which was absolutely false”.
Political agendas have linked Shannon Airport to “false claims” about its role in assisting the US military, Martin maintained. Weapons passing through Shannon formed part a “continuing narrative from certain quarters, politically within Ireland, which I think will damage Shannon, if that kind of argument continues”.
According to the Taoiseach, it would be difficult to “intervene” or “investigate” if there were any “transgressions” of rules prohibiting such activity by the US military. The Taoiseach said that there was a “need to be realistic in the modern era”.
He said there were “established rules in terms of airspace and the utilisation of airspace. But again, we haven’t any strong evidence that our airspace has been used for any attacks on Iran”. He said there was “international law governing airspace” and that the State also had “arrangements made in terms of the rules and the framework by which you can fly through Irish airspace.”
However, he admitted, that “the capacity to investigate that or to intervene if there’s transgression is challenging and problematic”.
The ongoing conflict in Iran is the backdrop for the Taoiseach’s St Patrick’s Day visit to the US and his meeting with Trump.
Martin also said that there remains a “standing invitation” to Trump to visit the Republic. But the Taoiseach had no information on whether the president would visit next September when the Trump family owned five star resort in Doonbeg hosts The Irish Open. “We’ve no hard information in relation to that”.
