Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Ghali said on Sunday that the United States and Britain violated the UN charter when they launched the ongoing war against Iraq without UN approval.
In an interview with the BBC television, the former UN chief said: "This intervention is certainly a violation of the UN charter."
UN Resolution 1441 on Iraq, passed by the UN Security Council last November, made it quite clear that the Unite States and Britain need a second resolution, Ghali said.
The priority for the international community now was to know what ought to be done so that this war will not cause destabilization in other countries in the region and prepare for post-war reconstruction, he added.
Boutros Ghali also cautioned that the conflict in Iraq may fuel Islamic extremism.
"What is dangerous is that this war is reinforcing the position of the fundamentalist in the Arab world," he said.
Boutros Ghali, who is Egyptian, served as UN Secretary-General from 1991 to 1996.
(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2003)
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