Ian Black
The Guardian
December 19, 1998
It was a sad day for the world, Kofi Annan lamented when US cruise missiles began pounding Baghdad. But as the United Nations Secretary-General was contemplating the ruins of his Iraq policy, Washington and London were insisting they had the law fully on their side.
Surveying the disarray in the UN, Mr Annan was right to be gloomy.
In Paris 10 days ago, he pointedly reminded the French National Assembly that military intervention by the international community must remain subject to approval by the council. "Dispensing with its assent, as some are tempted to do, would mean setting an unfortunate precedent," he said, without mentioning Iraq.
But the US and Britain sound supremely confident that their actions are grounded in the dozens of closely negotiated UN resolutions since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.
Underlining international divisions, Russia yesterday recalled its ambassadors from Washington and London, protesting that it was not told of the air strikes in advance. France insisted that the council should have examined the report by the UN chief weapons inspector, Richard Butler, which triggered the attacks.
But George Robertson, the Defence Secretary, reminded Moscow yesterday that last February it signed up to a resolution threatening the "severest consequences" if Iraq did not co-operate with the inspectors.
Normally such a phrase is diplomatic parlance for the right to use force. But council members said the resolution was not an automatic trigger for military action. After Mr Annan's eleventh-hour mission to Baghdad, the US and Britain looked isolated. When Saddam Hussein spurned the "comprehensive review" of UN policy, the next resolution provided a firmer basis for action.
"Before 1205 we felt we were on shaky ground," one British official condeded last night. "But afterwards it was all fairly watertight."
Resolution 1205, passed on November 5, condemned Iraq's decision to cease co-operation with the UN teams as a "flagrant violation" of Resolution 678, which in 1990 authorised "all necessary means" to evict Iraqi troops from Kuwait. Russia insists Iraq would have to invade again to be in "material breach" of the ceasefire. So as the bombs fall again, law and politics are, as ever, inextricably intertwined.
