Ban Ki-Moon says only Security Council can order airstrikes on Syria (Illegal Otherwise)

[morningfog]

Last edited Wed Sep 4, 2013, 12:45 AM - Edit history (1)

Any faction found to have used chemical weapons "must be brought to justice," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday. But the head of the world body also warned that any use of force to punish perpetrators would be legal only in self-defense or with U.N. Security Council authorization.

Ban appealed for patience among U.N. member states while an investigative team that returned from Syria over the weekend completes analysis of biomedical and environmental samples it collected.

The team, which spent four days in search of evidence that chemical attacks occurred Aug. 21, will have delivered all of its forensic evidence to European labs for analysis by Wednesday, Ban said at U.N. headquarters in New York at a webcast news conference.

"We need to emphasize the importance of not jeopardizing the scientific timelines needed for accurate analysis," he said, without providing any specifics on when the results will be available and made public.

The U.N. investigators, led by Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom, were tasked solely with determining whether chemical weapons were used, not who used them, in attacks in Damascus suburbs that U.S. intelligence reports say killed more than 1,400 people.

Asked whether threatened U.S. military action to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad's government would be legal, Ban insisted that "the Security Council has primary responsibility for international peace and security."

"The use of force is lawful only when in exercise of self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter and-or when the Security Council approves such action," Ban said.


http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-syria-un-ban-airstrikes--20130903,0,3023833.story

[last1standing]

1. Screw them and "Old Europe!"

I thought I'd get in the first bushism on this thread.

[Hydra]

6. LOL

The first thing I thought of:

"Screw them and their vote requirements! We're 'Mercia! We have the solution!(It's a bomb!)"

[El Supremo]

2. But..But...Putin would veto it.

Seems like Kerry should be talking to the Russians more than Congress.

[morningfog]

3. The Russians hurt our feelings when they didn't do our bidding on Snowden.

[Rex]

4. Funny, how does he feel about recent warmongers?

nt.

[on point]

5. Absolutely true. Time for USA to end bully stance vis the rest of world

[morningfog]

7. k

[kenny blankenship]

8. Uh Oh. I guess that means other countries will be justified to bomb us back into compliance with law

Or is that solely the prerogative of the United States acting unilaterally or as the leader of a coalition with a cadre of subordinate henchman states?

[dreamnightwind]

9. K & R for patience

I wasn't aware of this:

"The U.N. investigators, led by Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom, were tasked solely with determining whether chemical weapons were used, not who used them"

That's unfortunate. I think the real question is, who used them, and I think there's a lot of room for debate on that issue. Doesn't sound like the U.N. will be weighing in on that issue, so we're stuck trying to discern truth from spin, as usual.

[upi402]

10. So, Chomsky is right about that

"The use of force is lawful only when in exercise of self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter and-or when the Security Council approves such action,"

Will Obama cement our rogue nation status?

[avaistheone1]

13. I am hoping he won't,

but my gut tells me he will.

[leftstreet]

11. DURec

[Spider Jerusalem]

12. When you can count on a Russian veto and a Chinese abstention or veto...

a Security Council vote is kind of pointless. And Russia and China are opposed, not because the Assad regime's actions don't merit an international response, but because they're authoritarian states that may see the need to take similar action against popular uprisings at some indeterminate future point.

[morningfog]

14. That does not change the illegality.