Russia today said it would appeal to the UN to rule on the legality of the US-led war in Iraq, as President Vladimir Putin warned the conflict could spill over into other regions.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia and other countries would ask the global body to determine if the US attack violated international law.
"With other states, we will put this question before the UN's legal department. It is very important that these arguments [about the legality of US actions] are confirmed," he told the State Duma lower house of parliament.
"This is the only way that we can use them as a strong weapon," Mr Ivanov added. "If the UN Security Council describes the US actions as an aggression, appropriate measures will be taken. But if you or I describe them as aggression it won't achieve anything," the foreign minister said.
"The action has no legal basis and the attempts to justify it by resolution 1441 are not serious," he concluded.
The US administration argues that resolution 1441, passed unanimously in November, which threatened Iraq with "serious consequences" if it failed to show it had handed over its weapons of mass destruction, provides sufficient authority for the war.
Mr Putin, who yesterday called on the US to stop the war on Iraq, saying that attack was a "serious political mistake," stepped up his warnings of the risk to global security, including on Russia's own borders.
"The crisis has already spilled over from a local conflict, and today poses a potential threat to stability in other regions of the world, including the CIS [Commonweath of Independent States]," Putin said at a meeting in the Kremlin.
His comments came moments after Mr Ivanov told Duma lawmakers that the United States was "occupying" Iraq since it sidestepped the UN Security Council in its decision to launch the war.
AFP