The US President's approach to Gaza was a 'failure', the former Taoiseach has said.

Leo Varadkar told The Hard Shoulder that his opinion on the outgoing President Joe Biden's handling of foreign affairs is "mixed".

"On Israel-Palestine, I think all of us in Ireland would agree that he could have stood up to Netanyahu in a way that he didn’t," Mr Varadkar said.

"When the ceasefire proposal was rejected back in May - basically the same one is being discussed now - he could have stopped offensive weapons being sent to Israel.

"Other presidents did - like Reagan for example - and he didn't and I think that was a failure."

Mr Varadkar said Biden would not see his approach to foreign policy the same way.

"He would see it as being the President who was most supportive of Israel," he said.

"That's a different perspective and in Ireland we need to understand that people have different perspectives and there's a whole history and story behind that."

Joe Biden and Leo Varadkar in conversation at the White House Photograph: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

Mr Varadkar praised other elements of Biden's foreign policy.

"[Biden] was really good on Ukraine and Russia," he said.

"Let's not forget before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, they had taken Crimea, they occupied part of Georgia and they occupied part of Moldova.

"He was the first to really stand up to Russian aggression."

US-Ireland relations

In terms of the US's relationship with Ireland, Mr Varadkar praised Biden's approach.

"The US issued a démarche to the UK in the middle of 2020 saying Brexit was inflaming tensions with Europe and in Northern Ireland," he said.

"The UK is one of the US’s closest allies - British soldiers fight in American wars, so for him to do that was very significant.

"While London might not always listen to what we say, they certainly listen to the White House so we have to be very grateful to President Biden forever in terms of his help for Ireland."

President Joe Biden is approaching is final days in office.

President-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated on Monday January 20th.

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