Attack was not pre-emptive, says Taoiseach

The Taoiseach insisted that the attack on Iraq was not a pre-emptive strike and said the Government did not intend withdrawing overflight facilities from the US in Shannon Airport.

Mr Ahern said the view of Ireland and other countries was that it would have been better to have a political imperative with a further UN resolution, whether it was a legal certainty or not.

"The legal position is not clarified. As regards pre-emptive strikes, we do not believe the question of pre-emptive strikes applies to this conflict. The reason for that is that the permanent representatives of both the US, the UK and Australia wrote separately to the President of the Security Council informing him that military action had been taken against Iraq. All three said the reason was Iraq's failure to disarm."

Mr Ahern said the United Nations charter allowed for the use of force in two circumstances: first, when states were acting individually or collectively or in self-defence, or second, when the Security Council had decided that force was necessary.

"In our view, a second resolution would have been the way to resolve all these difficulties but that did not happen. Internationally and legally, it is not considered to be a pre-emptive strike."

The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said he was surprised to hear the Taoiseach trying to avoid the question of where Ireland stood on the doctrine of pre-emptive war by denying it was happening. "The leaders of the American administration have made no secret of the fact that this is precisely what is happening and that this is the shape of world geopolitics after 11th September."

Mr Ahern said Ireland and the Government did not want a war. "Regarding pre-emptive strikes, all three countries gave official notification to the Security Council and set out the official reasons for taking military action. They complied with what they had to comply with."

Mr Ahern said arrangements were being made for the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, to meet the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, with others.

It had been suggested to him, he added, that he and others should talk to Mr Kofi Annan. "A European effort would be made on this matter. I am looking at that and we are trying to make those arrangements."

Earlier, Mr Rabbitte asked if Mr Ahern's attention had been drawn to the statement of the former US Secretary of State, Mr James Baker, that "this is a war of choice, not a war of necessity." He asked if Mr Ahern accepted that the war was illegitimate, contrary to international law and driven by an ideology which threatened great instability in the region.

Mr Rabbitte said he was sure the Taoiseach had seen the images of civilian casualties, dismembered children, with some images too awful to be ever broadcast to the public.

"Against this background, does the Taoiseach still consider it appropriate to facilitate the war effort through Shannon?"

Mr Ahern replied: "Deputy Rabbitte has asked me if it is the Government's intention to change its position on overflights and landings in Shannon. It is not the Government's intention to change its position."

Mr Ahern said he shared the views and concerns of Mr Rabbitte and others on the reality of what was to be seen every night on television. "The realities and the horrors of war, particularly modern war, high technology and sophisticated weaponry, as always in wars, hits at the innocent people who have nothing to do with it, the women who were killed in the bus, the children who were killed in the marketplace."

Mr Joe Higgins (Socialist Party, Dublin West) said the Taoiseach should revise the definition of what was happening in Iraq as a tragedy and call it instead extreme criminality. "Will he say the leaders of the United States and Britain, who are responsible for this, are acting criminally? Will he instruct the Minister for Foreign Affairs to call in the British ambassador and the senior US envoy to register the revulsion of the big majority of the Irish people at the barbarism for which they are responsible in Iraq and our condemnation of it?"

Mr Ahern said that all the filmed reports, including those of some of Saddam Hussein's operations, were horrific. "We saw film of more than 5,500 people who were killed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and chemical warfare some years ago. We have seen the children who have died because of his regime. All war and suffering is wrong, but let us not look at only one side of it. This regime killed one million people in a decade."

Mr Higgins said: "As the leader of a country that suffered hundreds of years of imperialist plunder, how can the Taoiseach not take a stand against what these western powers are doing to the people of Iraq?"

Mr Ahern replied: "I said that the war under way is without doubt a terrible tragedy. We have seen the media reports from Iraq, which are distressing in the extreme. Ireland and the international community are working through the United Nations."

Amid further exchanges, Mr Ahern said Saddam Hussein had thrown out arms inspectors in 1998, adding that dictator regimes always did that.

The Labour spokesman on foreign affairs, Mr Michael D. Higgins, said: "Tell the truth. They were withdrawn."