The Minister for Foreign Affairs will not question continued US bombing of Afghanistan in his final days chairing the UN Security Council, but has stressed the need for a humanitarian strategy, according to a spokesman.
At a meeting in New York with the US Ambassador to the UN, Mr John Negroponte, yesterday Mr Cowen emphasised "the crucial importance of a humanitarian strategy to parallel the military one", the spokesman said.
However, as Labour and the Green Party called on Mr Cowen to seek an end to the bombing, the spokesman said he would not do so. "The United States is still acting in accordance with UN resolutions 1,368 and 1,373," the spokesman said. Labour and the Greens yesterday renewed their calls for a halt to the bombing and accused the Government of giving uncritical support to what they called the bombing of one of the world's poorest countries and the killing of its civilians.
Labour's deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Eric Byrne, accused the Government of "providing an uncritical echo for Messrs Bush and Blair . . . A principled international stand by the Taoiseach, expressing opposition to the bombardment of one of the world 's poorest countries, would reflect the views of the Irish people."
Meanwhile, Green Party MEP Ms Patricia McKenna called on the Government to use its last days as chair of the UN Security Council to oppose the US/UK bombing of Afghanistan. She said she was "ashamed of the Irish Government's 'laissez-faire' attitude at the UN Security Council".
She said that as civilians died and a humanitarian crisis loomed in Afghanistan, the Government was "acting as a Western lackey for George Bush's bombardment of one of the poorest countries in the world".
She called on the Minister to "at least question the lack of UN mandate for the US/UK military action in Afghanistan, as the civilian death toll rises every day and a humanitarian crisis of gigantic proportions unfolds".
Tomorrow is the last day of Ireland's month-long chairmanship of the Security Council.
She said this Government had pushed Ireland further away from a position of independent neutrality in world affairs more than had ever been done in the past.
Ms McKenna said: "Within the EU Ireland is the only neutral country not willing to speak out against the bombing campaign and the only one willing to back the US regardless of what they intend to do. It is also disgraceful that Ireland did not even have the courage to back calls by aid agencies and the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Mary Robinson, for a cessation in the bombings."
At his meeting with Mr Negroponte in New York yesterday, Mr Cowen also pressed the US "to put the maximum pressure on Israel to withdraw its troops from West Bank towns", according to his spokesman. He also expressed Ireland's support for a reform of the sanctions regime imposed on Iraq.