Legality of Iraq war 'questionable,' former ambassador admits
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Nov 27, IRNA -- Britain’s former ambassador to the UN, who was at the centre of failed attempts to obtain a Security Council mandate for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, admitted Friday that the legitimacy of the war was “questionable.”
"If you do something internationally that the majority of UN member states think is wrong, illegitimate or politically unjustifiable, you are taking a risk in my view," Sir Jeremy Greenstock said.
Speaking on the fourth day of the Iraq inquiry, Greenstock said that he believed the US and UK had "established" legality for the war in that it had never been challenged at the UN or the International Court of Justice.
He believed previous UN resolutions on Iraq provided "sufficient legal cover" for future action but only it was on the basis of Iraq contravening obligations with relation to its weapons stockpile, which were never found.
"I regarded our participation in the military action against Iraq in March 2003 as legal but of questionable legitimacy,” said the ambassador, who later became Prime Minister Tony Blair’s special enoy to Iraq before retiring.
“It did not have the democratically observable backing of a great majority of member states or even perhaps of a majority of people inside the UK,” he told the inquiry, which is expected to take up to a year before it reports.
Attempts led by Greenstock to negotiate a clear mandate for the war in early 2003 were vetoed by France and Russia, leading critics to claim the subsequent invasion was illegal.
The former ambassador described the Iraq crisis as the source of "great division" in the recent history of the UN Security Council with the US at "one end of the spectrum" and France and Russia at the other end.
On Thursday, former British Ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer said the UK government believed it was "pointless" to resist US plans for regime change in Iraq a full year before the invasion.
Meyer speculated that the path to war was set at a meeting between Blair and US President George W Bush at his Texas ranch in April 2002, when no advisors were present for most of the meeting.
During the first few weeks inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot is questioning officials and military figures, focusing on policy in the build-up to the 2003 invasion. Political leader, including Blair, are due to give evidence early next year.
Critics have also alleged that the findings cannot be fully independent as the inquiry is being led by a five-member panel appointed by the government.
2220**345**1420
End News / IRNA / News Code 813640
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
