The Government has declined to take a position on whether the NATO attacks on Yugoslavia are justified in international law despite strong criticism of NATO by another neutral European state, Austria.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs said last night it was "tragic" that diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Kosovo had not succeeded. The bomb attacks were "regrettable" he said.
Asked several times whether Ireland approved or disapproved of the NATO action, Mr Andrews repeated: "What I'm saying is we would seek to have the matter resolved peacefully. That doesn't appear to be happening."
In contrast, an Austrian government spokesman stated bluntly that the NATO air strikes did not have a UN mandate. Therefore, Austria would deny NATO planes access to its air space, and it was obliged by its own law on neutrality to take this position.
Austria's coalition government is divided on that state's approach to military neutrality. The Christian Democrats support Austria joining NATO, while the dominant socialists adhere to the neutralist position.
Sweden's Foreign Minister, Ms Anna Lindh, said: "The NATO air strikes would not be entirely covered by international law . . . but I can understand the political situation because Milosevic is an unpredictable dictator who does not want to move an inch."
Mr Andrews said he would not say whether the Government believes the air strikes have legitimacy in international law as this was not for the Government to judge. "The security forces are continuing operations against civilians in Kosovo," he said. "This is contrary to UN Security Council Resolution 1199. Three of the permanent members of the Security Council, Britain, the US and France, take the view that this gives a mandate to conduct air strikes. Two, Russia and China, say no. It is not up to us to judge."
Irish and Finnish objections to a draft EU statement on Kosovo at the EU summit yesterday resulted in the removal of several references to NATO from the document. The Irish and Finns pointed out that not all members of the EU were NATO members, and that the original document read as if they were.