WASHINGTON: The Irish premier’s annual Saint Patrick’s Day visit to the White House is normally a joyful affair — but this year the war in Gaza cast a shadow darker than a rainy Dublin sky.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and President Joe Biden — who loves to celebrate his Irish ancestry — found themselves having to paper over a deep split over Israel’s handling of the conflict.
Varadkar has been one of Europe’s most critical leaders over the situation in Gaza, calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Biden meanwhile continues to send key US ally Israel weapons, while pushing for a six-week truce.
Their differences were on stark display on Friday.
“The president was very clear that the US would continue to support Israel and to assist Israel to defend itself, so I don’t think that’s going to change,” Varadkar said after their Oval Office meeting.
“But I think none of us like to see American weapons being used in the way they are. The way they’re being used at the moment is not self-defense.”
To be sure, the Taoiseach’s traditional White House trip ahead of the Irish national holiday this weekend had all the outward trappings of friendship and amity.
Biden sported an emerald green tie decorated with shamrock leaves. The mantelpiece of the Oval Office fireplace was also decked with bunches of the plant, Ireland’s national symbol.
Rarely missing the chance to trumpet his heritage, Biden quoted an Irish saying to open the meeting.
“May the hinge of our friendship never go rusty,” he said, adding: “I don’t think we are going to let it go rusty.”
Last year Biden paid an emotive visit to Ireland, a country that still plays an outsized role in US politics with some 10 percent of Americans claiming ancestral roots there.
Varadkar had faced calls in Ireland to boycott the Biden meeting, with support running high for the Palestinians in a country with its own bitter memories of fighting for independence a century ago, in its case from British rule.
But in the Oval Office, Biden and Varadkar were keen to present as united a front as possible.
“You know my view is that we need a ceasefire as soon as possible to get food and medicine in, to get the hostages out,” Varadkar said.
Biden quickly nodded his head and said: “I agree.”
Both of them stressed the need for urgent humanitarian aid for Gaza, where the UN has warned of famine.
The US president signaled his own frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war, praising a “good speech” by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that called for Israel to hold fresh elections.
The two leaders also underscored the areas where they see eye-to-eye — on supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion; on stability in British-ruled Northern Ireland after the tribulations of Brexit; and on US-Irish economic ties.
But speaking to reporters outside the West Wing after the meeting, Varadkar was candid about their divisions on Gaza, calling for a ceasefire “yesterday.”
“All that I want, Ireland wants, is that this should happen immediately, because the humanitarian situation in Gaza really is catastrophic,” he said.
Notably he praised Vice President Kamala Harris — whom he met for breakfast — for her “great courage and leadership” in calling for an immediate ceasefire earlier this month. It marked an upping in rhetoric from the Biden administration, and Biden himself did not use the phrase until days afterward.
Biden and Varadkar later tried to stop the issue from hanging over a “Friends of Ireland Luncheon” in Congress — hosted by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who described Biden as “America’s most famous Irishman.”
“There’s nothing, nothing our nations can’t do together if we work together,” said Biden. “And I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”
The president will host Varadkar again at the White House on Sunday, on the day of Saint Patrick’s Day, for further celebrations.
Gaza casts pall over Irish PM’s St. Patrick’s Day talks with Biden
https://arab.news/5e26c
Gaza casts pall over Irish PM’s St. Patrick’s Day talks with Biden
- Varadkar has been one of Europe’s most critical leaders over the situation in Gaza, calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire
- Biden meanwhile continues to send key US ally Israel weapons, while pushing for a six-week truce
Russia and Ukraine trade attacks as US and European officials prepare for peace talks
Moscow pounded Ukrainian power infrastructure with drone and missile strikes on Saturday and Kyiv launched a deadly strike of its own on southwestern Russia, a day before talks involving senior European and US officials aimed at ending the war were set to resume.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian, US and European officials will hold a series of meetings in Berlin in the coming days, adding that he will personally meet with US President Donald Trump’s envoys.
“Most importantly, I will be meeting with envoys of President Trump, and there will also be meetings with our European partners, with many leaders, concerning the foundation of peace — a political agreement to end the war,” Zelensky said in an address to the nation late Saturday.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner are traveling to Berlin for the talks, according to a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
American officials have tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including which combatant will get control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.
“The chance is considerable at this moment, and it matters for our every city, for our every Ukrainian community,” Zelensky said. “We are working to ensure that peace for Ukraine is dignified, and to secure a guarantee — a guarantee, above all — that Russia will not return to Ukraine for a third invasion.”
As diplomats push for peace, the war grinds on.
Russia attacked five Ukrainian regions overnight, targeting the country’s energy and port infrastructure. Zelensky said the attacks involved more than 450 drones and 30 missiles. And with temperatures hovering around freezing, Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said more than a million people were without electricity.
An attack on Odesa caused grain silos to catch fire at the coastal city’s port, Ukrainian deputy prime minister and reconstruction minister Oleksiy Kuleba said. Two people were wounded in attacks on the wider Odesa region, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.
Kyiv and its allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
The drone attack in Russia’s Saratov region damaged a residential building and killed two people, said the regional governor, Roman Busargin, who didn’t offer further details. Busragin said the attack also shattered windows at a kindergarten and clinic. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down 41 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight.
On the front lines, Ukrainian forces said Saturday that the northern part of Pokrovsk was under Ukrainian control, despite Russia’s claims this month that it had taken full control of the critical city. The Associated Press was not able to independently verify the claims.
The latest attacks came after Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov reaffirmed Friday that Moscow will give its blessing to a ceasefire only after Ukraine’s forces have withdrawn from parts of the Donetsk region that they still control.
Ukraine has consistently refused to cede the remaining part of the region to Russia.
Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard troops would stay in parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas even if they become a demilitarized zone under a prospective peace plan — a demand likely to be rejected by Ukraine as US-led negotiations drag on.
Ushakov warned that a search for compromise could take a long time, noting that the US proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
“We don’t know what changes they are making, but clearly they aren’t for the better,” Ushakov said, adding: “We will strongly insist on our considerations.”
In other developments, about 480 people were evacuated Saturday from a train traveling between the Polish city of Przemysl and Kyiv after police received a call concerning a threat on the train, Karolina Kowalik, a spokesperson for the Przemysl police, told The Associated Press. Nobody was hurt and she didn’t elaborate on the threat.
Polish authorities are on high alert since multiple attempts to disrupt trains on the line linking Warsaw to the Ukrainian border, including the use of explosives in November, with Polish authorities saying they have evidence Russia was behind it.
