Ahern raps pre-emptive strike ethos

In his address to the United Nations yesterday, Bertie Ahern seemed to agree with both US President George W Bush and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan about the danger posed to the international community by rogue States with weapons of mass destruction.

It was a diplomatic speech, carefully crafted to give minimum offence, but yet take a firm independent stand on some issues.

The Taoiseach said the Government “would be deeply concerned at the widespread acceptance of the doctrine of pre-emptive strikes,” which Secretary

General Annan had warned could “result in a proliferation of the unilateral and lawless use of force, with or without credible justification.”

While clearly supporting Mr Annan’s call for UN reform, the Taoiseach was careful not to direct criticism specifically at either the United States or Britain, but nobody could be in any doubt that he was including their attack on Iraq as a pre-emptive strike.

Mr Ahern insisted that henceforth all peaceful means should be used to avoid pre-emptive attacks.

In the Secretary General’s view, the US and Britain were so concerned about their vulnerability to a terrorist attack last year that they felt compelled to take unilateral action in Iraq.

“We must show that those concerns can, and will be addressed effectively through collective action,” warned Mr Annan.

In our current global economy, no country can stand for long against the United Nations, if the various States would show a determination to uphold and enforce the UN Charter.

The Taoiseach has called for reform of the Security Council by increasing its membership from 15 to 25 countries, as well as increasing the number of permanent members, but without giving the new permanent members a veto.

Implicit in his remarks was the need for reform of the UN Charter, so that the Security Council would be entitled to involve the UN in operations against the new kind of terrorism within the borders of any country.

There was some other implicit criticism of American foreign policy in the Taoiseach’s address, such as his calls for all States to sign up to the International Criminal Court and adhere to its principles. The United States has refused to sign up to that court.

If there is to be a Middle East settlement, the peace process on this island has demonstrated that Israel has to recognise that it will have to make peace with the Palestinians. Killing or deporting Yasser Arafat will likely make things more difficult.

Ireland is prepared to put its money where its mouth is in relation to the United Nations by asking the Dáil to authorise the use of as many as 400 Irish troops to assist the UN peacekeeping operations in Liberia.

This will be the biggest deployment of Irish troops since the Lebanon crisis.