PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins has said he does not regret comments he made yesterday about the Israeli embassy circulating a letter he wrote to the Iranian President.

Speaking to reporters in New York today, the President said it was very unusual that the Israeli embassy would compose a letter “condemning the President of Ireland for having issued a letter to the incoming president of Iran”.

In a heated press conference, the President was asked to clarify if he believed Israel had leaked the letter he wrote to the Iranian president following comments he made yesterday.

In the exchange with reporters yesterday it had been put to Higgins that he sounded as if he had a suspicion about how the letter was made public, to which the President replied “not at all, I know how it became public. It’s for you to find out.”

When a reporter then said “it sounds like you know Mr President, can you just tell us?”, the President responded: “I do indeed it was circulated from the Israel embassy.”

When he was asked how Israel would have obtained the letter the President said he had “no idea”.

In a statement issued by his office hours after the exchange, a spokesperson for the President said he “made no accusations of a leak, he solely referred to the letter being circulated”.

During his press conference today, when the President was asked to clarify his comments, he said all he wished to say on the subject was that many in diplomatic circles would regard it as improper for the Israeli embassy to have issued a statement on his letter to the Iranian president.

When he was pushed on the matter he said: “I did not use the word leaked, I used the word circulating, and we have confirmed that. And really it is your responsibility if you decided to put a spin on the language”.

When it was put to the President that it appears the letter was first made public by the Iranian embassy in a now deleted tweet, the President said he wanted to discuss other issues related to the UN General Assembly and that he regarded “the matter you are raising with me as just finished”.

When he was later asked if he believed the Israeli embassy leaked his letter, the President said: “I think that my letter appeared on the Iranian website. Very unusually then the Israeli embassy composed a letter condemning the President of Ireland for having issued a letter to the incoming president of Iran. And that’s that, and that’s the end of it.”

When he was again asked if he believed Israel leaked it, the President said “I’m not using language at all about it”.

‘This isn’t Pen pals International’

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Simon Harris and the Tánaiste Micheál Martin have both defended the president’s comments from yesterday, with Harris saying the focus should instead be on Israel’s failure to respect international law.

“You’ll excuse me for not getting overly exercised about the issue of a letter that’s two months old. I dealt with this very clearly yesterday. The President of Ireland did not suggest that Israel leaked a letter,” the Taoiseach claimed today.

He said where the letter came from is “utterly irrelevant to the issue at hand” and that he would not fall for the “trap from Israel of let’s talk about a letter”.

“Let’s talk about the failure of Israel to respect international law. Let’s talk about the failure of some countries that will sit in [the United Nations] building tomorrow and talk about international law, who are refusing, refusing to call out Israel and its breaches of international law,” Harris said.

He added: “So we can have a chat about letters and correspondence. This isn’t Pen pals International. This is a situation where children are dying because of the blatant breaching of international law. And I think the President made his position clear.”

With reporting from Muiris O’Cearbhaill