War on Iraq is Illegal — UN SecGen Annan

Of course, we knew it all along. It’s just that there are stubborn people who insist otherwise.

According to a news release by the UN News Service, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan “had reiterated his well-known position that the military action against Iraq was not in conformity with the UN Charter” in a BBC interview.

When repeatedly asked if the war is “illegal,” Mr. Annan finally answered: “Yes… I have indicated it is not in conformity with the UN Charter, from our point of view, and from the Charter point of view it was illegal.”

A UN spokesman, Mr. Fred Eckhard said that this had been Annan’s longstanding view. “He has over the past more than a year used the words ‘not in conformity with the Charter’ to describe his view of the Iraq war and of course one of his purposes in establishing the UN panel on change was to look at the question of preventive war and try to bring that in conformity with the Charter principles, which do not promote preventive war,” Mr. Eckhard said.

The report also quoted Annan as saying he hopes “we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time.” He noted that such action needed UN approval and a much broader support of the international community.

I’m sure Bush and his minions would say, “What international community?”

What else should we expect? It is after all the same administration that refuses to recognize the UN’s International Criminal Court and pressured its allies–including the Philippines0–not to subject US citizens in those countries to the ICC.