The legality of the US and UK attacks on Afghanistan has been described as "seriously questionable" by the Labour spokesman on foreign affairs, Mr Michael D Higgins.
He told the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee that citing the right of self-defence in the UN Charter provided only "fragile grounds in international law".
"It is not an absolute right, it is a conditional right." The bombing could not be justified and the combination of humanitarian and military action had damaged the international community. He would have welcomed a statement from the Irish presidency of the UN Security Council last month "expressing regret that there had been a resort to a military response before the diplomatic process had been exhausted".
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, said countries had a right to self-defence. "If there is a continuing threat to international peace and security what is the international community to do?"
Security Council Resolution 1368 categorised the September 11th attacks as threats to international peace and security. Therefore Ireland had "a legal obligation under international law" to make air facilities available to US planes. Of course he regretted any civilian casualties but this was not the purpose of the US-led campaign, unlike the September 11th attacks.
On the Middle East, Senator Michael Lanigan of Fianna Fβil was accused by the Fine Gael TD, Mr Alan Shatter, of purveying "provocative and emotive nonsense" .
Mr Lanigan had described the Israeli government as "a regime that consistently murders Palestinians". He added that he would like the Government to lead the drive to ensure the Palestinians got their "just rights" and that the Israelis had the right to work together with the Palestinians rather than "continually trying to eliminate them from the face of the earth".