Ireland is "sticking" with the UN Security Council, the Taoiseach insisted in the Dáil yesterday, as the Opposition accused him of "fence sitting" over possible unilateral action by the US against Iraq.
"That matter will perhaps arise some day. Perhaps it won't," said Mr Ahern about a pre-emptive strike by the US if the UN Security Council did not agree a further resolution. "I hope that none of these issues arise. I hope that Saddam Hussein is forced into a position where he will comply."
Pressed repeatedly by the Opposition about Government policy in the event of unilateral action, the Taoiseach said he was not going to answer "hypothetical questions that may or may not arise".
During questions by Opposition leaders, he said: "Nobody is giving endline positions on anything and they are not going to.
"We will stick with the Security Council. That is our position and we will continue with it." The Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, said the Taoiseach's moment of truth on Iraq had arrived. "It is time for him to move from his traditional comfort zone - the fence." The inspectors had made some progress and the people of Ireland had marched and it was surely time to "seize the day and declare himself on Iraq".
"Does the Taoiseach or does he not support unilateral action against Iraq in the event of no sanction being given by the United Nations?" Mr Ahern said: "I will continue to support the Security Council of the United Nations. I will continue to support resolution 1441. I continue to support peaceful resolution to this issue."
The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, accused the Government of being "outrageously hypocritical" in its response to the march in Dublin on Saturday.
Given the "depth of feeling" at the march it was a "travesty of the issue that you should send out Tom Kitt (Minister of State) and you yourself should support him by making outrageously hypocritical suggestions that the 100,000 people were on the street in support of Government policy".
They were marching against Government policy and angry that no policy was being articulated, he said. Mr Ahern replied, however, that he was very heartened that 100,000 people took the same view as everyone in the Dáil, that they did not want to see war.
"A united approach within the Security Council is most likely to succeed in convincing Saddam Hussein to comply with his obligations. The members of the EU council of leaders took full account of the deep concern of everybody all over the world who marched last week. Every EU government is anxious to avoid war."
He hoped the support for the UN Security Council meant that they would get "what we all want, full compliance with the 17 resolutions that have already been laid down in front of the UN Security Council and the 18th one, which we also support".
Mr Ahern agreed with the Labour leader, that a regime change was not part of the UN's remit. Mr Rabbitte said that the remit of the UN mandate was "with the identification and destruction of weapons of mass destruction and not of regime change. The countries positing regime change are acting outside the UN mandate". Mr Ahern said the French and Germans made it "unambiguously clear" that their number one priority was compliance with resolution 1441 and to see Iraqi authorities disarmed. A regime change is not in resolution 1441.
Mr Joe Higgins (Socialist, Dublin West) said the reasons for attacking Iraq were fraudulent. "If Saddam Hussein shoots as much as a peashooter outside his border, he will invite obliteration. This is not about alleged weapons of mass destruction at all, but the US wanting to extend imperial hegemony over the Middle East and corral the oil resources for the next century."
