March 11, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 7, 1424

THE HAGUE, March 10: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned on Monday the legitimacy of military action taken against Iraq without UN Security Council backing would be “seriously impaired”.

Mr Annan pleaded for unity in the Security Council in the face of a potential U.S.-led action to disarm Iraq.

“The members of the Security Council are now faced with a grave choice,” Annan told a news conference. “If they fail to agree on a common position and action is taken without the authority of the Security Council, the legitimacy and support for any such action would be seriously impaired.”

“There are concerns about the long-term consequences of war in Iraq. One must have no illusions about what war means,” Annan said, warning that military action would have serious implications for the region and the rest of the world.

“The better the consensus, the better the chance we have to come together again and deal effectively with other burning conflicts in the world, starting with the one between the Israelis and the Palestinians,” said Annan, who is in The Hague for peace talks to reunite Cyprus.

LEGAL ADVICE: A UN official said the secretary general had taken legal advice before issuing the warning to the United States.

If the United States acted unilaterally against Iraq “the legitimacy of such military action will be seriously impaired,” Annan told reporters in The Hague.

“War must always be the last resort. The United Nations has a duty to search to the very end for a peaceful solution,” he said. If the US goes outside the Security Council, it will not be in conformity with the UN Charter.”

The Charter says that a UN member state should refrain from “the threat or use of force” against any other state, unless it comes under armed attack.

It also says that member states conferred “the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security” on the Security Council, and that they agreed it should act on their behalf.

Annan was to attend the swearing-in of the first judges of the newly created International Criminal Court in the Dutch capital on Tuesday.

Annan’s spokesman Fred Eckhard declined to elaborate on his statement.

But a UN official said the secretary general had taken confidential advice from the organization’s legal counsel before making it.

The relevant articles of the UN Charter are the following.

— Article 2

iv) All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.

— Article 24

i) In order to ensure prompt and effective action by the United Nations, its Members confer on the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and agree that in carrying out its duties under this responsibility the Security Council acts on their behalf.

— Article 41

The Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.

— Article 42

Should the Security Council consider that measures provided for in Article 41 would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security.

— Article 51

Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. —Reuters/AFP