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Annan Faults Bush Over Iraq War
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“Those
who seek to bestow legitimacy must themselves embody it, and those
who invoke international law must themselves submit to it,”
Annan said (AFP)
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UNITED
NATIONS, September 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan took on Tuesday, September 21, a fresh,
though an implicit, jab at US President George W. Bush in a clear sign
that world opinion was still far from making peace with the war in
Iraq.
Bush,
however, vowed to stay the course in Iraq, saying that the US army has
“enforced the just demands of the world”.
Annan
opened this year's annual General Assembly at the United Nations by
cruising Bush's plan to deliver democracy to Iraq through force in a
pointed speech aimed at underlining the importance of the rule of law,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Those
who seek to bestow legitimacy must themselves embody it, and those who
invoke international law must themselves submit to it,” Annan said
in a speech that drew applause from the presidents and ministers on
hand.
“In
Iraq, we see civilians massacred in cold blood while relief workers,
journalists and other non-combatants are taken hostage and put to
death in the most barbarous fashion,” he said.
He
continued: “At the same time, we have seen Iraqi prisoners
disgracefully abused,” he said, drawing a parallel between the Iraq
bloodshed and the prisoner scandal in a way destined to irk Bush, who
was to due to speak after Annan.
Receiving
Bush at his office hours before delivering his speech, Annan did not
mention the United States by name at his wide-ranging address, which
also referred to the Darfur crisis, the Israeli aggressions on the
Palestinians and finally Russia’s hostage tragedy.
Rule
of Law
Annan,
who just last week called the war “illegal”,
said that international law must be respected by all countries alike.
“It
is the law, including Security Council resolutions, which offers the
best foundation for resolving prolonged conflicts -- in the Middle
East, in Iraq and around the world,” he said.
“All
states -- strong and weak, big and small -- need a framework of fair
rules,” the UN chief said. (Click
here to read the speech in full).
Speaking
to the BBC last week, Annan said the US-led war on Iraq contravened
the UN charter.
“I
have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN Charter from our
point of view, from the chapter point of view, it was illegal.”
Annan
said the 15-member Security Council should have approved the invasion
of the Arab country – which has the world’s second oil reserves.
“I
hope we don't see another Iraq-type operation for a long time ...
without UN approval and much broader support from the international
community,” Annan had said.
In
an earlier interview published March 5, former Chief UN weapons
inspector Hans Blix said the Iraq invasion was illegal as the United
States and Britain “hyped”
intelligence to attack the oil-rich country.
Staying
the Course
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“A coalition of
nations enforced the just demands of the world,” said Bush (AFP)
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Bush,
who describes himself as a wartime president, defended anew the US-led
war on Iraq at his UN speech.
He
insisted that the “US-led coalition” had enforced “the just
demands of the world” by ousting Saddam Hussein.
“A
coalition of nations enforced the just demands of the world,” said
Bush. “My nation is grateful to the soldiers of many nations who
have helped to deliver the Iraqi people from an outlaw dictator.”
“We
all have a stake in the world's newest democracies,” President Bush
said, saying the people of Iraq and Afghanistan were on the path to
freedom.
He
further demanded more UN action to help end the deadly chaos that has
followed the US-led invasion.
“The
UN and its member nations must respond to [Iraqi] Prime Minister
[Iyad] Allawi's request and do more to help build an Iraq that is
secure, democratic, federal and free,” Bush said to a tepid response
from the chamber.
At
the same time, the US leader warned that “we can expect terrorist
attacks to escalate” as Afghanistan nears elections scheduled for
October and Iraq approaches a vote set for January 2005.
"The
work ahead is demanding, but these difficulties will not shake our
conviction that the future of Afghanistan and Iraq is a future of
liberty. The proper response to difficulty is not to retreat; it is to
prevail,” he said. (click
here to read Bush’s speech in full)
Bush
offered no new strategies to overcome violence in Iraq and made no
explicit mention of the failure to find vast arsenals of weapons of
mass destruction or evidence of close Iraqi ties to Al-Qaeda -- his
two main justifications for launching the war without explicit UN
approval.
A
draft report by top US weapons inspector in Iraq, Charles Duelfer,
concluded that Iraq has
no weapons of mass destruction, raising concerns the invasion
of the oil-rich country was based on false pretexts.
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