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Middle East conflict is 'assault on international law' - President

President of Ireland Catherine Connolly speaking during a visit to Ulster University Campus in Belfast, on day one of her visit to Northern Ireland. Picture date: Wednesday February 4, 2026.
President Catherine Connolly's comments come as the US and Israel's conflict with Iran entered its second week

President Catherine Connolly has described the situation in the Middle East as a "deliberate assault on international law".

President Connolly's comments come after the US and Israel's conflict with Iran entered its second week.

She said that "violations of the UN Charter cannot be ignored" and described what is being witnessed as "shocking and numbing".

In a statement marking International Women's Day, President Connolly said: "What we have witnessed in recent days in the Middle East, and beyond, are not political disputes.

"They are deliberate assaults on international law, the international laws that have underpinned global peace for 80 years.

"We must name them as such, without euphemism and without equivocation."


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President Connolly added that Ireland is "uniquely positioned" to speak about peace and can support those working to achieve it.

"Our unbroken record of international peacekeeping since 1958, and our decades of commitment to disarmament and non-proliferation, stand as testament to the disproportionate influence a small, neutral state can wield when it acts with integrity and purpose.

"And our history of colonisation, famine, and the hard-won, peaceful resolution of conflict in the North oblige us to speak plainly," she said.

"On International Women’s Day, let us reflect on these solemn commitments which we have made in our nation’s Constitution and take every action we can to support the United Nations and all those working to build peace in a time when so many distort language to justify and normalise war," President Connolly added.