O'Donnell reins in support for Sudan's UN call

The Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, has softened comments made on radio over the weekend, in which she indicated Ireland would support Sudan's call for an international inquiry into the US attack on a chemicals plant in Khartoum.

Asked on RTE's Saturday View if Ireland would support Sudan's call on the UN to set up an international inquiry, she said: "Well, why not? I think it's a legitimate request." She added she did not know how successful the call would be, "given the power of the United States on the Security Council," and went on to say she believed it would be preferable if terrorism could be dealt with "on a common front" by the international community.

Speaking last night, Ms O'Donnell said she had given a "straight answer to a question I was asked" on radio. But she insisted she was not speaking for the Government or "trying to make foreign policy on the hoof". She had repeated throughout the interview the Government's position on the US attacks, that there was "general understanding" of what had led the US to act as it did.

Earlier in the same programme, she rejected a suggestion that official silence on the US attacks amounted to consent: "No, I don't think it's consent because it's clear that we're not articulating support for the action. What we have said . . . is that we presume the United States was acting on good intelligence. Now that intelligence has been called into question and the UN Security Council is deliberating after a complaint by the Sudanese government."

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said yesterday the State's position on the US action was unchanged, that Ireland "understands" US concerns about international terrorism, but has made no judgment on whether the attacks were justified. Ms O'Donnell said she had been "trying to be as fair as possible" on the radio programme, without purporting to speak for the Government. "Obviously questions have arisen about the intelligence on which the US based the attacks . . . It's also a matter of concern that the action could be counterproductive in dealing with terrorism because it may be seen throughout the Islamic world as an attack on Islam."

She did not expect the matter to be raised during Mr Clinton's Irish visit: "I can't see that an opportunity to raise it will arise, except informally". But the question would inevitably come up at next weekend's informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Salzburg.