US: Ireland took the opportunity of its last UN Security Council meeting to insist that it was for the council to determine if Iraq was in breach of Resolution 1441, and to decide what action should follow, according to a member of the Irish mission to the UN.
This marks a sharp difference from the American position, put by US ambassador John Negroponte, that the US considered Iraq in "material breach" of the resolution because of omissions in its declaration on weapons programmes.
Ireland does not consider the ommissions in the document to constitute a material breach, the phrase used to justify military action, the Irish official said. "A false statement or omission is not in itself a material breach."
What was important was that the inspections proceed in an objective and professional manner "they must be allowed time and space for this," he said. From its understanding of Resolution 1441 "it is for the council to determine if there is a material breach" on the basis of a report form the weapons inspectors and "for the council to decide on future action".
Ireland was elected to the Security Council in 2000, as one of 10 rotating members, for the years 2001 and 2002, and yesterday's meeting was its last before its term ends on December 31st.
Addressing the Security Council after the five permanent members gave their initial assessments of the declaration, Irish diplomat Gerry Corr was also critical of the lack of access given elected members to the full report of the Iraqi government, and the leaks and assessments published in the media before member states received their edited copy.
The permanent five, the US, Britain, France, Russia and China, were given the complete 12,000-page Iraqi report two weeks ago, but UN specialists removed sensitive material about the composition of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes from the copies given to the rotating members.
Ireland received its copy on Tuesday evening and it was brought to Dublin yesterday by Ireland's ambassador to the UN, Mr Richard Ryan for assessment.
"We said it was our view that we had a right under Resolution 1441 to see the entire Declaration, as a Security Council decision overrides other aspects of international law, but we chose not to exercise it," the official said. It was appropriate that sensitive material be excised, but what was an issue was the possible use of that material in any judgement on whether a "material breach" had occurred.
Bosnian Muslims who lost loved ones in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 men and boys by Serb forces have asked the UN for compensation for failing to protect them. A team of Bosnian lawyers said they had prepared files on behalf of around 6,500 people and filed a compensation request to the UN Secretary General this week.