Israeli President Says It Is 'Inappropriate' for Israel to Comment on Letter to Iran

It was “inappropriate” for Israel to comment on a letter written to the Iranian regime, President Michael D Higgins said, adding that he did not regret his comments on the letter.

At a tense news conference in which he tried to draw a line under the controversy sparked by his claim Sunday that the Israeli embassy had circulated a letter he wrote to Masoud Pezeshkian after he was appointed president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr Higgins said the letter was normal procedure.

He said: “The problem is that a statement was issued by the embassy saying that the president wrote and why didn’t he say that? Why didn’t he say that? And frankly, that was unusual, and many in diplomatic circles would consider that inappropriate.

That’s all I wanted to say about it.

A spokesman for Mr Higgins clarified on Sunday that while the president had said the letter had been released by Israel, he was not accusing the country of leaking the letter, which was posted online by the Iranian embassy in Dublin before being deleted.

Mr Higgins said that following this, “the Israeli embassy wrote a letter condemning the Irish president for writing a letter to the new Iranian president.”

President Higgins said: “I didn’t use the word ‘leak’, I used the word ‘circulation’, and we confirmed that. And that’s really your responsibility.”

“If you decide to go around language, you take responsibility for it.”

He added that it was “very unfair” to say he had criticised the Jewish community, saying he had “the greatest respect” for the Jewish people.

The origin of the letter is “totally irrelevant”

At the same time, the Taoiseach said he would not “fall into the trap” of talking about the letter.

“I just came back from a meeting where the Palestinian prime minister broke down in tears about the children killed by Israel in his own country today, and there are at least 21 children killed by Israel in Lebanon today,” Simon Harris said.

You will excuse me for not dwelling too much on the question of a two-month-old letter.

“The President of Ireland did not suggest that Israel leaked a letter. The President suggested that it be released.

“I don’t know where this letter came from. In fact, it was published on websites and others.”

Mr Harris said “the origin of the letter has absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand”.

“What is important is that a state is now carrying out catastrophic actions against children,” he said. “We made a decision last week in government that we want to help some sick children come from Gaza to have life-saving surgery in Ireland, but we can’t even get them out. The aid can’t get in and the sick children can’t get out.”

Holocaust Awareness Ireland called the president’s remarks, made Sunday in New York during his speech at a United Nations event, “disturbing” and said they fueled the long-standing conspiracy theory that Jews are “evil and evil.”

Asked in New York tonight whether the president should retract or clarify his remarks, Harris said the president had said no such thing about people of Jewish faith.

“The President of Ireland is an honourable and inclusive person,” he said.