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Button the Hatches: Ozzie Howard Says "I'll Act without UN Approval"
Australia will always reserve the right to act without United Nations approval if it sees the need for another "coalition of the willing" action such as the invasion of Iraq, Prime Minister John Howard says.With the 59th General Assembly of the United Nations about to wind up at the world summit in New York, Mr Howard said that nothing he had seen or heard this week had changed his mind about the limited role of international bodies. Australia joined the United States, Britain and Spain in invading Iraq in 2003 without the UN's sanction after Saddam Hussein allegedly failed to comply with UN resolutions on weapons of mass destruction (WMD). No WMD were ever found but Mr Howard said Australia would do the same again if it believed it was the only way to get something done. "I believe in the UN when it works," he told reporters after a two-and-a-half hour round table discussion with world leaders including British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin. "There are some circumstances where it does not work and you have to reserve the right for coalitions of the willing or whatever you want to describe it - you have to." Are you listening Iran and Syria? Mr Howard cited the case of Kosovo when foreign forces intervened to stop ethnic cleansing in Serbia without a UN Security Council resolution authorising the action. "Quite plainly, the UN, because of its institutional structure, wasn't going to be able to authorise certain things being done which clearly were required to be done," he said. "I'm not anti-United Nations, I'm just anti a belief that only the United Nations can deal with issues, because plainly there are circumstances where it can't because of its structure and because of the need to have a political consensus." Posted by: Captain America 2005-09-16 |
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