Security Council Chair a missed opportunity - Gormley

Ireland’s tenure as Chair of the UN Security Council was a "missed opportunity" which has harmed the UN and Ireland’s reputation, according to Green Party TD Mr John Gormley.

Minister for Foreign Affiars Mr Brian Cowen

Mr Gormley was speaking at an anti-war press conference this morning in advance of a protest opposing the bombing of Afghanistan to be held on Saturday.

The Green Party TD said as Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr Brian Cowen steps down from the Security Council he can look back on his time there as "a period of total and abject failure."

He said Mr Cowen, in Ireland’s name, "went out of his way to facilitate the US and Britain in their misguided war" against Afghanistan. "Innocent people have died and a humanitarian crisis is now looming. Osama Bin Laden’s position has been strengthened and the whole region has been destabilised yet the Government continue to give unequivocal support to a failed strategy," Mr Gormley said.

Cowen: went out of his way to facilitate the US and Britain in their misguided war against Afghanistan Mr John Gormley, Green Party TD

The Department of Foreign Affairs said today that from the outset Ireland’s Presidency of the Security Council has highlighted the plight of the Afghan people.

A spokesperson for the Department said that UN Security Council Resolution 1368 called on all states "to work together urgently to bring about the perpetrators, organisers and sponsors of the terrorist attacks on the US."

Socialist Party TD Mr Joe Higgins said the war in Afghanistan will serve only to further inflame opinion in the Muslim world and create the grounds for more support from reactionaries.

Speaking at the anti-war conference Mr Higgins said the Al-Qaeda terrorist network and reactionary fundamentalism draws it’s support from the effects of western foreign policy.

He said to undercut support bases for these groups "We must ensure the Palestinian people have an independent state. We must immediately stop the sanctions in Iraq and put investment into Iraq’s weakened infrastructure and radically change the current inequitable terms of world trade.

The Irish Anti-War Movement said it expects a sizeable turn-out for the protest against the war on Afghanistan. The march will assemble at the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square this Saturday at 3 p.m.

The group is a broad-based anti-war movement and was formed before the launch of attacks on Afghanistan.