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FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER Simon Coveney has said he would rather the situation in Syria be handled through the United Nations (UN).
Speaking on Newstalk’s Pat Kenny Show ahead of a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg today, Coveney said:
“I think the international community has to be strong on this issue. I would have much preferred if it was the UN that was taking robust action in terms of accountability, independent inspection, and taking a legal prosecution after investigation on the basis of international war crimes… but that clearly hasn’t been possible – yet anyway – through the UN.”
He added that he would not like to see tensions escalate between the US and Russia in particular, adding that the perpetrators behind the alleged chemical attack in Syria last week must be held accountable.
‘Horrified’
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said Ireland is very strong and clear in condemning the use of chemical weapons, adding that “we were horrified by the attacks in Douma just over a week ago”.
“There are no good answers on how to address the horrible situation in Syria, and when something like this happens, it is natural to want to take action to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. However, Ireland continues to urge caution by all parties. The Syria conflict ultimately requires a political solution; that is the only way to bring peace,” the statement added.
Chairing the meeting of Foreign Affairs ministers, the Tánaiste said they will discuss what the EU can do bring about “a peaceful end to the conflict and full legal accountability for those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria”.
Chemical weapons watchdog
Separately, the world’s chemical weapons watchdog is set to convene this morning to discuss the suspected toxic gas assault in Syria that prompted an unprecedented wave of Western strikes, as its inspectors probe the attack near Damascus.
As the on-the-ground investigation gets under way, the fallout from the US-led response continued to reverberate, with French President Emmanuel Macron claiming to have persuaded President Donald Trump to keep his troops in Syria.
And in London, British Prime Minister Theresa May is to face an emergency parliamentary debate today to discuss Britain’s involvement in the airstrikes.
The US-led strikes were the biggest international attack on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime since the start of Syria’s seven-year war.
They have risked a confrontation with Moscow, the Syrian regime’s top ally, with President Vladimir Putin warning that fresh attacks would spark “chaos”, while Washington vowed economic sanctions against Russia rather than further military action.
US, French and British missiles destroyed sites suspected of hosting chemical weapons development and storage facilities Saturday, in a move lauded by President Donald Trump as “perfectly executed” – although the buildings were mostly empty and both Damascus and Syria’s opposition rubbished its impact.
The Western trio swiftly reverted to diplomatic efforts, with leaders facing flack at home over the punitive attack.
But their unified stance appeared to be shaken yesterday when Washington knocked back French President Emmanuel Macron’s claim that Paris had convinced Trump to stay engaged in Syria “for the long-term”.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the US mission “has not changed” and Trump wanted troops home “as quickly as possible”.
Saturday’s strikes came just hours before a team of experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons arrived in Damascus.
They have been tasked with investigating the site of the alleged 7 April chemical attack in the town of Douma, in the formerly rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, which Western powers said involved chlorine and sarin, and killed dozens.
The OPCW is set to meet in the Hague today over the attack, although there have been no signs yet that the investigators have travelled to Douma to begin their fieldwork.
The inspectors will face a difficult task, with all key players having preempted their findings, including Western powers, which justified the strikes by claiming they already had proof such weapons were used.
Inspection still useful?
The team will also have to deal with the risk that evidence may have been removed from the site, which lies in an area that has been controlled by Russian military police and Syrian forces over the past week.
“That possibility always has to be taken into account, and investigators will look for evidence that shows whether the incident site has been tampered with,” Ralf Trapp, a consultant and member of a previous OPCW mission to Syria, told AFP.
The OPCW declared that the Syrian government’s chemical weapons stockpile had been removed in 2014, only to confirm later that sarin was used in a 2017 attack in the northern town of Khan Sheikhun.
“We will ensure they can work professionally, objectively, impartially and free of any pressure,” Assistant Foreign Minister Ayman Soussan told AFP.
‘Locked and loaded’
US leader Trump exclaimed “Mission Accomplished” after the pre-dawn strikes that lit up the sky around Damascus in a tweet that drew swift derision from his critics and parallels with president George W Bush’s notoriously premature Iraq war victory speech on an aircraft carrier 15 years ago.
The Pentagon said no further action was planned but Washington’s envoy to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, warned that the US was “locked and loaded” should another gas attack occur.
Assad denounced a “campaign of deceit and lies at the (United Nations) Security Council” after a push by Moscow on Saturday to condemn the strikes fell far short.
This is why we have food traceability…to get to the real source of the problem. What a rotten deal for those who had bad turkeys. I would be hugely disappointed if it had been me.
Seems it happened last year also..
@Seeking Truth:
They bought turkey from Tesco, tesco bought it from the farmer, is this enough traceability
@Seeking Truth: why did we have to wait till the end to find out that ‘ most cases’ where in the UK
@Seeking Truth: part time staff not storing them correctly is a guess
@Shane Cormican:
With that attitude I am thinking your probably one of the managers that is responsible for the part time staff, if that’s the case your responsible
@Shane Cormican: Part time staff are on minimum wage and zero hour contracts. They are not paid enough to care about the job they do.
Management knows this yet insists on endangering their customers by using cancer capitalism.
Serves Tesco right.
@Colin Morris: if there was issue with how they were stored then the onus is on the manager . Every store has a goods inward manager and part of their job is to ensure that frozen and fresh food are stored properly as soon as they come through the goods inwards . Nothing whatsoever to do with part time staff!
@Nucky:
Does it make any difference to you whether they were in the UK or Ireland.
@Nucky: Because you skipped the headline?
@Scott Hazel: they had green turkeys last year
@Carina Clarke:
Eco-friendly ones??
@Colin Morris: incorrect Colin. Nobody on zero hour contracts or minimum wage.
@Casper: he’s got a point. Open refrigeration is crap. Often get rank milk etc from Tesco. Not a rare occurrence.
@Misanthrope: dunnes lidl ALDI and SuperValu all use open refrigeration as well so they should all have the same issue
For the others, weve been through this time and time again, Tesco don’t have zero hour contracts. Only the unions spout that rubbish.
And at Nicky, yes it does matter where the turkeys come from. UK turkeys are from UK farmers. Irish turkeys are from Irish farmers.
For the traceability comment, yes it is important. There should be a trail of how and where the meat was transported and stored.
IMO, sounds like the birds were killed to early and improperly stored. Expiry dates for a turkey on dec 26th is a bit tight for me!
I bet we’ll find that they were all bought from the same region if not town and store!
@Casper: No not really.
What farmer? What dates were they slaughtered? Who delivered them to Tesco? Who ensured their proper storage? Having worked in the medical industry where you can trace every medical product back to the date and time it was produced, who put it together, who packaged it, etc. it makes finding the source of a problem quite easy. Food is the same….or should be….trace it back to the source and then you know where the problem lies and how to correct it.
@Nick Allen: not that it’s really your business idiot , I’ve always bought my turkey and ham in Tesco
@Neal Ireland Hello.: the headline has been changed
Buying chicken fillets is a gamble at tesco yet alone a whole bird
@Dave O’Hanlon: Tesco have the best quality of chicken fillets. Their conditions are far more strict than other stores, from the same supplier.
@Peter: yerra Tesco sold you horse meat and you thought it was “the best quality of chicken fillets”. I have never heard such delusion about Tescos quality control.
They should be compensated with free bog roll for the week at least.
I’ve bought chickens that had gone be off before their sell by date.
However I’ve got a feeling some are jumping on the band wagon.
Some are down to bad storage.
How can you not know the turkey had gone off before you cooked it? It must have smelt rancid.
Also one woman claiming to be sick after handling a rancid Turkey. Did she not wash her hands and counter after handling it? Has she ever heard of cross contamination? Think she is seeing pound signs!
@Lily: I got a Tesco turkey (not rancid) in my online shopping. They come free sealed in plastic when they so I could well imagine you might miss the small until you open it on the day, especially of you have a cold.
@Neal Ireland Hello.: but some actually cooked it first
@Lily: Food like this causes 280,000 food poisoning cases a year in the UK.Look what M&S had to do to get the quality up M&S customers are a bit more vocal than Tesco customers. The only way that they could stop the customers from killing themselves from cross contamination from chicken SH IT was to seal it into an oven ready bag and get the customer to literally cook the SH IT out of it.
M&S will seal each of its chickens in a special bag that can be roasted
The supermarket said it will reduce the risk of transmitting campylobacter
The bacteria causes 280,000 food poisoning cases a year and 100 deaths
The new packaging only applies to whole chickens and not fillets or pieces
Campylobacter is present in 59 per cent of chickens according to the FSA
@Harry Browne: well really people should wash their hands, the counters and any utensils that came into contact with raw chicken, even throwing away the plastic it came in, you still have to wash your hands after handling it, and clean the taps that you turned on with raw chicken over your hands.
Are they stupid?
I know that had to issue a warning to tell people to stop washing chickens as the water splashes and contaminates everything it touches.
Fails safe method of roasting chicken in the bag. So consumers don’t have to handle raw chicken. If they can’t handle a raw chicken without giving themselves food poisoning then humanity is doomed.
Many Supermarkets have Irish Flag and they are packed in Ireland but imported from places in the 3rd world. Factory Farming is hitting back big time. What do you expect, you buy a force fed Turkey/Chicken that had a terrible life, in it’s own faeces, then given antibiotics….. what happened to the butcher who supplied you with a Turkey or Chicken from somebody they knew personally? where the birds at least had a normal life outside and living on Grass. I have bought many rancid fillets of Chicken. What do people expect at such low prices? you get what you pay for. I have more or less gone Vegetarian, delicious ! I don’t preach but factory farming is having it’s say .
@Rosemarie Martin: Sounds like you’re preaching
@Rosemarie Martin: sounds very preachy for somebody who doesn’t preach. You might want to watch that.
@Jumperoo: not so much preachy as a bit ranty I would’ve thought. There’s a fine line between preaching and ranting.
@Rosemarie Martin:
The farming methodologies used for poultry have nothing to do with the incorrect storage later in the supply chain. Your agenda is not applicable to this story
@Nick Allen: Yes it seems the storage went wrong somewhere along the line. I doubt tesco would accept the turkeys first off if they were rancid. Factory farming supplies food at a very cheap cost to the consumer. I reckon most people are glad of it. It’s only certain sectors of society who can afford organic food.
Bet the Irish customers were sorry they didn’t buy Irish!
@Mark Moran: it was in the uk.
I remember years ago buying chicken in Tesco. When i took the wrapping off it that evening with the intention of making a stir fry it was rancid.. took it back following day & despite being wrapped in two plastic bags the girl in CS desk almost fainted with smell.. Now i just buy meat from a butchers directly a bit more expensive but better quality & guaranteed freshness everytime…
@vero: Meat from a butchers . . . . . nah, it’ll never catch on.
@vero: most butchers are buying their meat from the same sources as the supermarkets these days to be fair so there is no difference in reality
Who actually buys meat in Tesco anyway? Worst of the worst
@the phantom: Some of us are on a budget, Lord Grantham. Or buy online in bulk for freezing because we can’t drive.
Food traceability based on EU regulations designed for the customer’s safety not for the supplier’s profit. Pity UK customers didn’t think of that on 23rd June 2016. Wouldn’t bank on similar regulations in a post Brexit little Britain. It also puts the soft/hard border discussion in sharp context here! UK and NOI are highly likely to become a ‘food no go zone’ after Brexit …. soft border implies trust…. not much of that in evidence…. so physical inspections inevitable…. not the conclusion anybody wants but citizens health dictates it.
Why is this news in Ireland? It happened in Tesco UK but no mention of that in the headline. Misleading and sensationalist.
Rancid? Of course it is…after all it is decomposing flesh. I know, I know , that statement of fact will annoy some people, but all I’m doing is stating fact. You can’t disagree with that.
Hands up, yes, maybe I am a little preachy [did not mean to be ] apologies, but surely somebody has to care? If you are eating the flesh of animals that lived in un natural conditions, were force fed, lived in unatural light all their lives, did not eat proper food that turkeys/chickens should, were dosed with Antibiotics that are to kill the infection from faeces up to their necks, how can you expect something like this not to happen.
Preachy? no, Do I care about Factory farming? yes, You get what you pay for.
The appalling lives the animals live ~ well they can’t speak for themselves.
To the idiot who took it out 32 hours before it was recommended to – that’s why it’s gone bad. Frozen food must be used within 24 hours of thawing. I’m sorry but you get what you pay for. Harsh, maybe. Buy your turkey from a reputable butcher or direct from the farm, never from a supermarket and never, ever frozen. Frozen turkeys are the dregs of the food chain. Store it in a fridge, below 5 degrees (preferably below 3), not in the garage, utility room or elsewhere ‘cool’ and use within 3 days or bin it.
@Aisling Boyle: to the idiot who didn’t read it properly she took it out as per instructions to let it thaw out and then cook it. In other words she followed the guidelines.
It should be a criminal offence to sell unsafe and rotten food.
Tesco will get off very lightly because of market strength.
@Fiona deFreyne: they didn’t know it was unsafe or rotten at the time ..otherwise they wouldn’t have sold it ..
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: scant comfort for those who’s Christmas dinner was ruined. They are responsible for what they sell, ignorance is an excuse.
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: donoghue v Stephenson, the absolute principle on the law in matters like this, places the duty of care firmly on tesco.
Can’t believe they’ve tried to blame part-time staff too. Vicarious liability also places the whole blame on the employer. I’d say they’re proper fooked.
@Deborah Behan: of course they’re still to blame ..i never said otherwise did I?
Pluck that!!
Hardly surprising, Tesco meat is awful quality.
I’d imagine that there’s a few rancid turkeys around today after last nights festivities
Meat is murder. A Quorn roast would have been the better option. No animals would have needlessly suffered and lost their lives.
Tesco needs to follow M&S lead to stop people from killing themselves
M&S will seal each of its chickens in a special bag that can be roasted
The supermarket said it will reduce the risk of transmitting campylobacter
The bacteria causes 280,000 food poisoning cases a year and 100 deaths
The new packaging only applies to whole chickens and not fillets or pieces
Campylobacter is present in 59 percent of chickens according to the FSA
Marks & Spencer has announced it will only sell chickens as ‘roast in the bag’ from 2014 on to protect customers from a dangerous food poisoning bug.
The decision will stop people coming into contact with campylobacter, which has been named as a major public health threat.
The drastic measure has been backed by the Food Standards Agency and is expected to be followed by other retailers.
The M&S initiative is part of a five point plan designed to reduce exposure to campylobacter.
Its proposals include paying farmers a cash bonus if they manage to keep their chickens free from campylobacter and blast chilling them in an attempt to kill the bug.
The store said the plan is already reducing the number of birds that carry the bug. The new packaging will apply to 85 per cent of chickens with immediate effect, and to all birds by the end of the year.
Should have had the Bosh mushroom Wellington!
@Pounamustone: I made that…it was delicious with Tesco red onion gravy. Love cruelty free food.
When you buy something with best before 1 day before you cook it what do you expect??
Also known as “Revenge Of The Turkeys,” a Christmas horror film showing at a cinema near you. We keep hearing about “Turkeys voting for Xmas.” This movie is about a group of renegade birds who didn’t want to be stuffed, plucked, basted, carved up or end up the focal point of the festive dinner. Parental supervision recommended but not essential. Violent scenes including lots of vomiting to be expected.
God I hate Turkey.. Terrible Country !
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