UN questions legality of war

AAP, Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 7 March 2003, 10:30AM

The president of the United Nations has cast doubt on Prime Minister John Howard’s claim that a new UN resolution is not required to pave the war for any war in Iraq.

Mr Howard has said if the US and Britain fail to win UN Security Council support for a new resolution authorising a strike on Iraq, the previous Resolution 1441 contained enough legal backing for any conflict.

But United Nations General Assembly president Jan Kavan told AAP the UN would need to pass another resolution to sanction military action and make any strike legal under international law.

He said resolution 1441 was not an automatic trigger for war.

I do not interpret the wording of 1441 as automatically enabling military action without a specific consent by the Security Council, Dr Kavan said.

I do believe that within the terms of how the authors of 1441 envisaged it, if the resolution is not complied on, there should be a brief Security Council resolution authorising military action against Iraq.

Dr Kavan, speaking after delivering a speech at the Australian National University, said resolution 1441 was carefully crafted to avoid it being used as a justification for war.

Mr Howard said on Thursday Australia’s military was ready for war on Iraq.

But he strongly denied having a deadline for the conflict and said no decision had yet been made to commit forces to war.

He said no decision would be made in the next few days or coming week, but would only come after a final decision by the United Nations Security Council on the new resolution, due late next week.

Australia has about 2,000 military personnel in the Persian Gulf, including SAS commandos, F/A-18 jet fighters and navy ships, as part of the United-States build-up against Iraq.