Annan: Invasion of Iraq 'Illegal'



from The Christian Science Monitor:

In an interview with the BBC Wednesday, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said the decision to launch an invasion of Iraq should have been taken by the entire United Nations, and not taken unilaterally. When pressed for a third time by a BBC interviewer if that meant that the invasion was illegal, Mr. Annan said that "if you like" it was "not in conformity with the UN charter from our point of view, and from the charter point of view it was illegal."

"I think in the end everybody's concluded it's best to work together with our allies and through the UN," he said. "I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time - without UN approval and much broader support from the international community," he added.

Annan also said that, given the current levels of unrest in Iraq, it was unlikely that it would be possible for "credible" elections to be held by the current scheduled date in January.

more from The Christian Science Monitor:

The US and its allies in Iraq almost immediately denounced Annan's statements. Randy Scheunemann, a former adviser to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said the statement, 51 days before a US election, "reeks of political interference."

The Age reports Thursday that Australian Prime Minister John Howard, himself in the middle of an election campaign where his decision to send Australian troops to Iraq is a key issue, said the invasion was "warranted." He said the UN was a fine body, but it was often "paralyzed" because "its members struggled to reach consensus." Britain and Japan also defended their decisions to send troops to Iraq.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that a National Intelligence Estimate prepared for President Bush contains a "dark assessment of prospects for Iraq." The Associated Press reports that the report, prepared over the summer by senior analysts (and before the current wave of new violence in Iraq) offers a bleak picture of Iraq's future security and stability.

The National Intelligence Council looked at the political, economic and security situation in the war-torn country and determined at best the situation would be tenuous in terms of stability, a US official said late Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. At worst, the official said, were "trend lines that would point to a civil war."

A recent report by a prestigious British foreign affairs think tank, known as Chatham House, also said that civil war was the "default scenario" for Iraq.

Read the rest here.

Posted: Mon - September 27, 2004 at 06:29 PM          

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