Iraq plans to ask U.N. to condemn U.S.
By Edith M. Lederer
Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS — Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations said yesterday he planned to submit a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan branding the onset of U.S.-led military action against his nation "a violation of international law."
Associated Press
"It seems that the war of aggression against my country has started," Mohammed Al-Douri said outside the Iraqi mission.
British U.N. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, left, spoke with U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte during a U.N. Security Council meeting yesterday at United Nations headquarters. The council broke up bitterly divided over the British-U.S. decision to launch the assault on Iraq.
Al-Douri said he would deliver the letter as early as today. He added he has not been in contact with leaders in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, the most outspoken opponents of military action against Iraq — France, Russia and Germany — insisted the United States will be acting illegally if it attacks Iraq and overthrows Saddam Hussein.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told the U.N. Security Council that no U.N. resolution authorized military action or "the violent overthrow of the leadership of a sovereign state."
There are also "no indisputable facts" to demonstrate that Iraq threatens the United States, he said. If there were, the Bush administration could exercise its right under the U.N. Charter to respond in self-defense.
The foreign ministers of Russia, France and Germany attended an open council meeting held only hours before the clock ran out on a deadline set by President Bush for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq or face war. Though the Bush administration has said the time for diplomacy was over, the ministers made a point of attending to reaffirm their opposition to war and assert the primacy of the United Nations.
Declaring that military intervention "has no credibility," Germany's Joschka Fischer also stressed, "There is no basis in the U.N. Charter for a regime change with military means."
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin reiterated his country's contention that a war would not only be illegal but would exacerbate the tensions and divisions on which "terrorists feed."
The three ministers did not say they would raise the issue in the council after a war begins. They insisted the U.N. Security Council would have a role in the aftermath of war.
Predicting "imminent disaster" for the people of Iraq, Annan implored the United States and its allies yesterday not to forsake humanitarian aid when the fighting starts.
"This is a sad day for the United Nations," Annan said. "I know that millions of people around the world share this sense of disappointment and are deeply alarmed."
The council meeting was called to hear a report by chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix outlining a dozen issues that Iraq needed to resolve to prove it was disarming peacefully, but for many members, his list of disarmament tasks was eclipsed by the approaching war. Blix expressed disappointment that inspections were curtailed after only three months.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said he had no intention of coming to New York, and U.S. officials made a point of downplaying the meeting's importance.
In a short speech, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte reiterated that the United States believes Saddam had failed to cooperate with U.N. inspectors and called Blix's program "quite simply out of touch with the reality that we confront."
As the meeting broke up, with the council still bitterly divided, the mood was tense.
"It's a tragedy," said Chile's U.N. Ambassador Gabriel Valdes. "Another tragedy is going to begin now."
