DUBLIN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Hard border on the island of Ireland must be avoided and the backstop is needed to protect the peace process on the island, said a senior Irish official here on Sunday.
Simon Coveney, Irish deputy prime minister and foreign minister, twitted Sunday that "Ireland has been respectful of UK decision to leave EU (European Union) from the start, but has always been clear that border infrastructure on Island of Ireland must be avoided".
He said "The Backstop is the insurance, designed by UK/EU/IRL(Ireland), to protect the Peace Process. That's why we need it".
Coveney's comments are widely seen here as an official response from the Irish side to a Sunday report by a British newspaper which quoted a leaked British government document as saying that a hard border can not be avoided if Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal.
The document, which was leaked to The Sunday Times, said that a no-deal Brexit would also result in jammed ports and a three-month shortage of food, fuel and medicines.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to lead his country to leave the EU with or without a deal at the end of this October.
He has also insisted that the backstop must be scraped before any talks between Britain and the EU over the Brexit issue.
Both the EU and Ireland have reiterated that the Withdrawal Agreement and the backstop, both agreed by the British government led by the former British prime minister Theresa May, are not open for renegotiations.
Hard border refers to physical infrastructure such as checkpoints and customs houses along any border. The backstop is an arrangement to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Britain's Northern Ireland after Britain's withdrawal from the EU before any better solution is found.
There used to be a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, but all the checkpoints and customs houses along the border were dismantled after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which has ensured decades-long peace and stability on the island of Ireland since then.
People from both sides on the island of Ireland are now concerned that a hard border could endanger the hard-won peace on the island.
