Annan: Iraq War 'Illegal' Without U.N. Ok
 

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a BBC
interview that the Bush Administration's decision to go to war in Iraq was
"illegal'' because it didn't have U.N. Security Council approval.

The U.N. Charter allows nations to take military action with Security
Council approval as an explicit enforcement action, such as during the
Korean War and the 1991 Gulf War.

But in 2003, in the buildup to the Iraq war, the United States dropped an
attempt to get a Security Council resolution approving the invasion when it
became apparent it would not pass.

"I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time -
without U.N. approval and much broader support from the international
community,'' he said in an interview with the BBC World Service on
Wednesday.

At the time, Annan had underlined the lack of legitimacy for a war without
U.N. approval, saying: ``If the United States and others were to go outside
the Security Council and take unilateral action they would not be in
conformity with the Charter.''

On Wednesday, after being asked three times whether the lack of council
approval for the war meant it was illegal, he said: "From our point of
view and the UN Charter point of view it was illegal...''