LAST UPDATE | 18 hrs ago
MICHAEL D HIGGINS has accused Israel of leaking a letter he wrote congratulating the President of Iran on his appointment.
Higgins made the comments today while speaking to the media in New York, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly.
In July, President Higgins wrote to Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian to congratulate him on his appointment. The letter was not officially published by the President’s office but was circulated online and received some criticism, including from members of Fine Gael.
One TD described the letter as “fawning” and “tone deaf” to the civil rights issues in Iran.
Meanwhile, former Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan told The Sunday Times that he felt Higgins’ views on Iran were “somewhat misplaced”.
“The evidence points to Iran as resisting and rejecting an appetite for domestic reform and being a destabilising and threatening force internationally across a region mired in conflict and strife,” Flanagan said.
Higgins was asked by a member of the press today about the criticism he received for the letter to which he responded: “Yes, why don’t you ask where it came from?”
The President then accused the Israeli embassy in Ireland of circulating the letter.
When asked how he thought the embassy obtained the letter he said he had “no idea”.
Higgins defended the letter and said it was “a standard one” that he has written to “many heads of state”. He added that he stressed the importance of peace in the region in the letter.
The first media to report on the letter was the London-based Jewish Chronicle on 29 July but the letter itself had already circulated on X, formerly Twitter.
There is a screenshot of an Iranian embassy tweet being shared tonight on X which puports to show the letter being shared by the embassy’s account on 28 July.
In a statement, the Israeli embassy said it was a “baseless accusation”.
“Unfortunately in Ireland, since the October 7 invasion by Hamas and massacre in Israel, which triggered this awful war, Israel has been subjected to a high level of malicious statements and accusations that have often manifested as incitement to hatred,” a spokesperson for the embassy said.
The statement continued: “This baseless accusation is highly inflammatory and potentially slanderous and the embassy rejects it completely. The fact remains that the letter was written and thefore it is the burden of the author to defend its content, which did not mention the threat Iran poses in the region, that it calls for Israel’s destruction, that it arms and funds terrorist organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah, not to mention the violations of human rights against its own citizens.”
In a statement this evening, a spokesperson for the President’s office told The Journal that President Higgins “made no accusations of a leak, he solely referred to the letter being circulated”.
“The exchange of letters upon the coming to office of a new Head of State is standard diplomatic practice for countries which share diplomatic relations. As is usual practice, the letter in question was drafted based on material supplied by the Department of Foreign Affairs and issued via standard diplomatic channels. Such letters have been sent to incoming Presidents of Iran for a number of decades.
“In response to questions, the President indicated his view that this standard diplomatic letter had been circulated over the summer and presented as being something out of the ordinary,” the spokesperson said.
In the exchange with reporters in New York 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.”
Following President Higgins’ comments, the Taoiseach said he did not know how the letter was circulated.
“What I do certainly know is that I think the Israeli embassy should be focusing on things other than amplifying, circulating or referencing a letter that does really conform with normal diplomatic protocol between heads of state,” he said.
“You’d like to think that Israel would be more concerned with the fact that 14,000 children in Gaza are dead, that at least 20,000 are missing, many presumed dead,” he added.
Speaking to media after arriving in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Harris said his focus for the summit was “not on an exchange of letters” but on the fact that there is still a “horrific, bloody humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the Middle East.”
“I have no interest whatsoever in getting into any sort of tit-for-tat or back-and-forth with the Israeli embassy or the government of a country that is continuing to allow this horrific humanitarian situation continue where children are dying on a daily basis, many more being maimed, and many, many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, being deprived access to humanitarian aid,” the Taoiseach added.
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