IRAQ CRISIS: There could be only one winner over Iraq and it had to be the United Nations, the British Minister for Europe, Dr Denis MacShane, said in Dublin yesterday.
Britain would prefer that any attack would have UN authorisation, and he warned that the world body could not "refuse its responsibilities" to face up to Saddam Hussein.
"We have to ensure that the UN does not repeat the mistake of the League of Nations in the 1930s by denouncing threats to world peace but not then being able to do anything direct about them," Dr MacShane said.
"Britain's view is that war is not inevitable and that the UN is the way of solving this dispute. But it cannot end up with Saddam Hussein again jerking the UN around as he has done successfully for the last 10 years. There isn't a score-draw available in this."
On the need for a fresh UN mandate before any invasion, he said: "Obviously we would prefer a second resolution and UN authorisation, because it is debatable whether under existing resolutions force could be used.
"But we are also quite clear that the UN cannot become the League of Nations and refuse its responsibilities if Saddam continues to defy the UN and its resolutions."
Dr MacShane, who was in Dublin to meet the Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr Dick Roche, told The Irish Times: "There can be only one winner out of this conflict. If it is Saddam Hussein, then the world will be a very much more dangerous place.
"It has to be the UN, whose authority has to be upheld. Its resolutions have to be fully complied with.
"There has to be a change of regime in Iraq in the sense that it's a regime that respects international law. As Kofi Annan has said, diplomatic pressure without, at times, the threat of military force simply becomes empty words."
Acknowledging the existence of anti-war sentiment in his country, he said this was part of Britain's political tradition. "But I also am very confident that the House of Commons, and actually other European nations, will accept their responsibilities if, at the end of the day, it comes to a showdown," he said.
Turning to EU matters, Dr MacShane said Britain favoured the idea of a full-time chair elected by the member-states to lead the European Council for five years at a time.
"It is clear that with a Europe of 25 , which means that each country would have the presidency six or seven times this century, we need more continuity," he said.
He rejected the criticism that creating such a post would favour the larger states, saying: "It could well come from a smaller country, someone who speaks two or three of the European languages. I believe that very strongly."
He saw no reason why this person could not work successfully with the existing President of the European Commission.