WAR ON IRAK

Guardian: Taking diplomacy to the wire

Leaked transcripts of telegrams from Spain's UN ambassador offer a behind-the-scenes insight into what happened at one of the most crucial points in the institution's recent history, writes Giles Tremlett

Monday March 17, 2003

So what has been happening behind the closed doors of the United Nations security council in New York during what some consider to be its final outing as a place for meaningful decision-making about what happens in the world?
With efforts to build UN consensus on Iraq dead in the water, Spanish officials have conveniently leaked documents that show what happened last week as the UN ambassador, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, tried to persuade the waverers on the security council to back a slightly toned down second resolution that would add greater legitimacy to war.

The documents - telegrams sent from Spanish UN ambassador, Inocencio Arias, to his boss, the foreign minister, Ana Palacio - showed that Britain was virtually alone among its allies in its attempts to salvage the UN route.

They painted a picture of a hyperactive security council whose members were gripped by a fevered nervousness as the Iraq drama was played out. The documents will, if the doomsayers are correct, provide historians with a useful view of what actually happened when the UN security council finally reached one of the most crucial points in its history.....