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Press release

Tánaiste in Middle East for COP28 Summit and UAE and Saudi Arabia programme

The Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Minister for Defence Micheál Martin today begins a three-day visit to the Middle East, following his programme in Egypt, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) last month.

The Tánaiste will travel to Saudi Arabia today (Wednesday) and then onward to the COP28 Climate Action Summit in Dubai. He will be announcing an additional €13 million in new humanitarian funding, including €7 million to address urgent needs in Gaza and €2 million to address the impact of the crisis in the wider Middle East.

During the Tánaiste’s visit to Riyadh he will meet with H.H. Prince Khalid bin Salman, Minister of Defence, to discuss the crisis in Gaza and wider regional issues. In Riyadh, he will also meet with a group of faculty, students and alumni of the all-woman Prince Nourhan bint Abdulrahman University (which is partnered with Dublin City University), with Irish business leaders in Saudi Arabia and with members of the Irish community.

Following his visit to Saudi Arabia, the Tánaiste will continue to UAE where he will meet with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al Nayhan, to discuss the crisis in Gaza and regional issues. The Tánaiste will meet with Enterprise Ireland clients active in the market and with the Irish Business Network in Dubai. This visit takes place in advance of a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels on Monday, at which the situation in Israel and Palestine will be further discussed.

Speaking about the visit, the Tánaiste said:

“This week’s visit is another important opportunity to engage with key actors in relation to the devastating war between Israel and Hamas and in which so many innocent civilians have died. We had welcomed the temporary truce which facilitated humanitarian aid in Gaza and I am extremely disappointed at the renewal of hostilities between Israel and Hamas. I reiterate my call for a permanent ceasefire and this visit to UAE and Saudi Arabia (which leads the LAS/OIC contact group on the Gaza crisis) reflects the importance of continued intensive consultations with regional partners as Ireland seeks to shape the EU discussion to respond in a clearer, more united and more robust way.

"As the humanitarian needs both in Gaza and across the Middle East continue to increase, we are responding also by allocating a further €9 million to address the critical humanitarian need. This brings Ireland's direct humanitarian aid to €22 million since October. We are providing this support through trusted partners who have shown in recent months their willingness to work in very insecure circumstances to help desperate civilian populations.”

On Friday (8 December), the Tánaiste will attend the COP Summit in Dubai. He will take part in a series of events and will launch Ireland's new strategy for engagement with Small Island Developing States.

Speaking about COP28, the Tánaiste said:

“The past 12 months have driven home to many people the extent of the climate crisis the world is facing. From the fires that raged across much of Europe to the flooding that struck here at home, it has never been this clear that we need urgent and coordinated action. Ireland has committed to significantly increasing its climate finance and has played a significant role in ensuring that developing countries have access to Loss and Damage funding. This is a crisis that affects us all. At a time when the world is facing serious divisions across a number of conflicts, the urgent need to tackle climate change unites the entire world in a common goal.”

Speaking about the global need for humanitarian funding, Minister for International Development and Diaspora, Sean Fleming, said:

“We need to continue to address urgent humanitarian needs in crises across the globe, including those that are seriously underfunded and where there has been a recent spike in need. Ireland is today providing an additional €4 million to address the global shortfall in humanitarian funding. This will see €2 million allocated to the UN’s Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan, which is helping the more than one million who have been forced to flee to neighbouring countries in search of safety. A further €2 million is being provided to the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). The CERF supports both large-scale emergency responses as well as protracted and forgotten crises that often fall below the radar.”

Notes

1. The €13 million package of humanitarian funding announced today is broken down as follows:

  • €7 million to address the urgent needs of people in Gaza which brings Ireland's aid in direct response to the crisis since October to €20 million. The current package includes grants of €2.6 million to the World Food Programme (WFP), €1 million to the World Health Organisation (WHO), €2 million to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and €1.4 million to the UN OCHA Occupied Palestinian Territories Humanitarian Fund
  • €2 million to address the impact of the Gaza Crisis on the wider Middle East region, including €1 million for Lebanon to the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and €1 million for the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) in Syria
  • €4 million to address the wider needs of global shortages in humanitarian funding – including €2 million for the regional response to the Sudan crisis through UNHCR and €2 million for the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund globally

2. This is in addition to a €13 million package announced by the Tánaiste in October which included €10 million in funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and €3 million to the UN OCHA Occupied Palestinian Territories Humanitarian Fund.

3. There are 5.7 million Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

4. The crisis in Gaza also has serious ramifications in the Middle-East region and it is important to address this in countries such as Lebanon and Syria, where extreme levels of vulnerability are being further compounded.

5. The UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) supports both large-scale emergency responses as well as protracted and forgotten crises that often fall below the radar. CERF has for example already allocated $15 million to the Gaza Strip. Ireland is the eight largest contributor, providing €14.5 million so far this year including today’s announcement.