IRELAND:The Government's attitude towards the UN role in settling the Iraq crisis has not been changed by the anti-war march in Dublin, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has said.
Speaking in Dublin, Mr Ahern rejected allegations that he had ever tried to minimise the numbers of people who turned up at the Dublin demonstration last Saturday week.
"I believe that many of the marchers take the same view as I do: that the right thing is to have a UN mandate.
"I have been talking since last October, and made several speeches, about the need for a UN mandate."
Asked what the Government would do about the provision of facilities at Shannon Airport if the US took unilateral action on Iraq, Mr Ahern told reporters in Dublin yesterday: "Nothing has changed since what I said last week, so let's just see how the second resolution goes but we're very supportive of that."
Voicing support for the UN, he said: "I don't just support it because of Iraq.
"I think in the long-term, international order is best served by a representative body that can take account of international opinion."
Meanwhile, the Labour Party's foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Michael D. Higgins, said the UN's General Assembly should be immediately convene to discuss the impending humanitarian crisis facing Iraq.
Supporters of the UN Charter must now "clearly state that pre-emptive action against Iraq is not only outside of the provisions of the charter but outside international law in any sense", he said.
"It is the international law at the heart of the charter which provides guarantees to all members of the United Nations," said Mr Higgins.
"The present crisis is so great that it is a matter worthy of consideration by the General Assembly of the UN," he said.
Particularly if the Security Council is deadlocked on future action, he added.
If the Security Council is divided, the General Assembly can be called together at 24 hours notice, as happened during previous crises in Korea and the Congo, he said
"A General Assembly meeting would not delay matters. Rather, it could provide a useful space in which to give the recently arrived South African weapons experts in Baghdad time to assist the inspectors in their work."
