MOSCOW. March 20 (Interfax-AVN) - The U.S.-led military campaign against Iraq is being carried out despite international public opinion and in violation of international law and the UN Charter, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a conference in the Kremlin on Thursday.
There can be no excuse for the military campaign against Iraq, as "there was no need to start it," Putin said.
"If we let international law be replaced with the law of force, which deigns the strongest to be right at all times and lets him do anything with an unlimited choice of means to his own ends, then true sovereignty, one of the fundamental principles of international law, will be called into question," the president said.
"That is why Russia insists on the soonest end to the hostilities," Putin said. The UN Security Council must play the central role in settling crises in the world.
"Iraq did not pose any danger to its neighbors, other countries or regions of the world when the operation began, because it is a weak country militarily and economically, especially after decades of sanctions," the president noted.