The United Nations may have failed this time, but we have no choice but to try to ensure it meets its next challenges, writes Bertie Ahern
The military campaign which is under way in Iraq has provoked strong emotions in Ireland and around the world. The Irish people are instinctively against war. We demonstrate this in our own particular way; in our traditional policy of military neutrality, and in our firm attachment to the United Nations.
These are principled positions which lie at the centre of Government policy. The Government deeply regrets that efforts at the UN to relieve Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by peaceful means have failed.
We worked hard last year, when Ireland was a member of the Security Council, to bring about a situation where the will of the United Nations could be enforced without the need for military action.
Resolution 1441, adopted unanimously by the council, gave Saddam Hussein a final opportunity to meet his disarmament obligations, and reminded him that serious consequences had been threatened if he did not comply.
Since we left the council at the end of December, it has been frustrating to watch as it has fallen into division and recrimination.
Unfortunately, Saddam is a proven master at exploiting divisions in the international community. He might, perhaps, have accepted that his game of evasion was up had he been confronted by a United Nations which was united in purpose as well as name.
Regrettably, the absence of coherent pressure encouraged him to miscalculate. Not for the first time, his lack of judgement has brought suffering on the Iraqi people. Let us all hope that it will be the last.
It is deeply troubling that the United Nations has shown itself unable to implement its own resolutions.
Like most countries in the world, Ireland does not have powerful armed forces of its own with which to protect its interests. Neither are we a member of a military alliance.
We trust in the United Nations as the guarantor of global peace and security. We look to international law to protect the interests of small states. The United Nations may have failed this time, but we have no choice but to seek to ensure that it can meet the next challenges.
The Government will be active in prompting UN action to assist in humanitarian relief and reconstruction in Iraq, and to deal with the wider issue of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Ireland will not be participating in the military campaign. When Resolution 1441 was adopted last November, the Government made it clear, on the floor of the Security Council, that as far as Ireland was concerned, we expected any action in the event of continued Iraqi non-compliance to be decided by the Security Council.
We did so precisely because of our attachment to the United Nations, and our desire that the UN should be seen to act with a clear and unambiguous mandate and with the full support of the international community.
That is why I was emphatic when I described a second resolution as "a political imperative".
The Government set a high bar for Ireland's participation in any subsequent military action. In the absence of a fresh and clear endorsement for military action from the Security Council, we have decided that Ireland will not participate in the current military campaign against Iraq. That is our firm and principled position, arrived at on the basis of the standard which we ourselves set.
The members of the international coalition confronting the Iraqi regime claim to be operating on the basis of UN mandate arising from a number of Security Council resolutions, including 1441. The strength of this claim is a matter of debate among international lawyers. It was precisely because of this difference of opinion that Resolution 1441 did not specify whether a further resolution was required to endorse military action.
The inability of the Security Council to agree on a further resolution specifically authorising military action does not mean that the legal arguments of the US and UK can be dismissed out of hand.
Given the lack of legal consensus, the Government is not prepared to describe the coalition action as illegal under international law. Such a determination is for the United Nations or other appropriate judicial bodies to make.
Whether military action is justified will be determined only in the light of the results achieved and the costs incurred, including in terms of the loss of human lives. However, any such assessment will only be subjective.
Our decision reflects both our firm support for the United Nations and Ireland's traditional policy of military neutrality. Irish neutrality is a policy choice. It is not defined exclusively on the basis of international legal instruments, such as The Hague Convention of 1907.
Neither is it described in the Constitution, nor should it be. Arguments over whether an action was, or was not, compatible with a policy of neutrality as referred to in the Constitution would give rise to endless legal challenges, and would take decisions out of the hands of the Government and the Oireachtas, where the Constitution itself has placed them.
Irish neutrality is manifested by our non-membership of military alliances and our obligations under the United Nations Charter.
Ireland is not a member of a military alliance, and will not become so without the express approval of the Irish people expressed through a referendum. The Government demonstrated its firm commitment on this point last October when it won the endorsement for a constitutional amendment to ensure that Ireland could not join a European Union common defence arrangement without approval in a referendum.
Ireland's freedom to resort to military force is limited by the UN Charter. Under the charter, nations are entitled to use military force only in self-defence, or when such force has been authorised by the Security Council as necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security.
Ireland is fortunate that in the period since independence we have never been obliged to act in self-defence. However, Irish troops have, on several occasions, used force in the service of the UN.
Ireland's neutrality does not prevent the Government from taking decisions which are in Ireland's interests. It certainly does not prohibit the provision of overflight and landing facilities for foreign aircraft.
The Government's position to allow US aircraft to overfly and land in Ireland is fully consistent with both our neutrality and our commitment to the UN.
We have been making such facilities available for half a century, throughout many wars and crises. We have pursued our policy of military neutrality throughout that period. Maintaining these facilities does not mean we are participating in a war; this has been the unambiguous legal advice offered to successive governments. We are not sending Irish troops or munitions to Iraq. Ask Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder if France and Germany are participating in the military campaign simply because they allow US overflights and landings. The very same clear position applies to Ireland.
I believe that the Government have made the right decision. It was our decision alone, taken in the absence of external pressure, on the basis of a longstanding policy position. We will continue to act in what we consider to be the best interests of the Irish people.