Iraq invasion entirely 'valid', Howard says

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Prime Minister John Howard has rejected comments from the United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan that the war in Iraq was illegal.Mr Annan told the BBC the last UN Security Council resolution before the war warned of serious consequences if Iraq was found to have breached earlier resolutions.He says without a new resolution specifying the consequences, the invasion was "illegal".

Mr Howard told Southern Cross Radio he does not agree.
"The legal advice that we had, and I tabled it at the time, was that the action was entirely valid in international law terms," he said.

"That was a legal opinion we obtained from the relevant people in Australia. There had been a series of Security Council resolutions and the advice we had was that it was entirely legal."
Mr Annan said the decision by the US, Britain and Australia to go ahead and invade Iraq did not conform with the Security Council or the UN charter, one of the cornerstones of international law.
"I've indicated that it was not in conformity with the UN charter from our point of view, and from the charter point of view it was illegal," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200409/s1200460.htm