United Nations Security Council

Llew Smith
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his definition is of the phrase material breach as used in United Nations Security Council Resolutions. [101991]

Mr. Rammell
As my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary said in the House on 7 November 2002, Official Report, column. 437,

"material breach is a term of art familiar in international law"

and

"means something significant, some behaviour or pattern of behaviour that is serious".

Llew Smith
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the Government means by the term serious consequences used in the draft resolution on Iraq presented by it, the United States and Spain to the United Nations Security Council on 24th February. [102076]

Mr. Rammell
As the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office my hon. Friend the Member for North Warwickshire (Mr. O'Brien) stated on 4 March in a written reply to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Morley and Bothwell (Mr. Challen), Official Report, column 915W, the Council has warned Iraq that it will face serious consequences as a result of its continued violation of its obligations. As the Government have made clear, that means consequences up to and including the use of force.