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Emergency session of U.N. Security Council

In this story:

• Saddam 'was warned'
• Australia: "No choice"
• Russia: U.S. not world's judge
• Distress in the Middle East
• Annan: 'Sad day'
• Related stories and sites

NEW YORK (CNN) -- China and Russia reacted angrily to the U.S.-British attack on Iraq, calling it a violation of the U.N. charter, while France warned of "grave consequences" for the Iraqi people from the use of force.

Russia demanded an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council. Sweden's U.N. ambassador, Hans Dahlgren, said the council should have been consulted before any action was taken. And in the Middle East, a number of countries condemned the military action, called Operation Desert Fox, as an act of aggression.

But many nations supported the strikes, which came after U.N. weapons inspectors withdrew from Iraq, saying it had failed to live up to an agreement to permit inspection of suspected weapons sites.

The United States and Britain launched air strikes against Iraqi weapons targets on Wednesday after deciding President Saddam Hussein would not cooperate with U.N. inspections.

The U.N. Special Commission withdrew its inspectors after Washington advised chief weapons inspector Richard Butler to do so. U.S. President Bill Clinton said U.S. and British strikes were aimed at military and security targets in Iraq.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka backed the strikes, saying, "We strongly demand that Iraq immediately and unconditionally implement the U.N. Security Council's resolutions."

Attack made headlines in Britain

The German government noted that the Iraqi leadership "had been warned" the international community would have to act if it failed to cooperate fully with U.N. weapons inspectors.

"The federal government regrets that, in the face of the attitude of the Iraqi leadership, it had to come now to the use of military measures," the German statement said.

"Saddam Hussein has brought this crisis on himself," Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said.

Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy added that his government supports the airstrikes, although Canada had not been asked to contribute militarily.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Islamic nation, called on the United States and Iraq to demonstrate restraint.

"We call on the conflicting parties to settle their problem peacefully and through diplomatic ways," said acting Foreign Ministry spokesman Imron Kotan.

People in Japan, Australia and New Zealand woke up Thursday to the news, carried live on both television and radio, and Japanese newspapers issued extras.

Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Norway gave their support to the air attacks, blaming Iraq for failing to cooperate.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said that having seen the report of U.N. weapons inspection chief Richard Butler on Iraq's failure to comply with United Nations demands, he believed the United States and Britain had no choice but to launch the attacks.

"Any use of force is always to be regretted . . . (but) the Australian government does not believe that the United States and the United Kingdom have been left with any alternative," Howard said.

"This has been very much a case of it being unavoidable and inevitable that if Iraq failed to comply with the earlier undertakings then action to degrade Iraq's military capacity . . .would eventuate."

In a special statement to Parliament, New Zealand Prime Minister Jenny Shipley said the world could not stand by as Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein continually flouted U.N. resolutions.

"Action, at the end of the day, is required," Shipley said. "There will be some (innocent) people who will suffer from the consequences (but) to not act could lead to much more serious consequences."

But Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, speaking in Madrid, Spain, blasted the use of force as "a violation of the United Nations charter."

"Nobody has the right to act on their own in the name of the United Nations and even less to pretend to be the judge of the entire world," Ivanov said.

Russia's U.N. ambassador, Sergey Lavrov, warned the Security Council of the consequences of the military attack. He questioned its legitimacy and demanded an immediate cease-fire.

"In carrying out this unprovoked act of force, the U.S. and the United Kingdom have grossly violated the charter of the United Nations, the principles of international law and the generally recognized norms and rules of responsible behavior," he said.

"No one is entitled to act independently on behalf of the United Nations and even less, to assume the functions of a world policeman," he said.

Lavrov also warned that there would be "extremely serious consequences " if the lives of Russians in Baghdad are endangered. "As a result of this military action, the lives of ordinary people are in danger," he said, and called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

Lavrov criticized Butler's decision to evacuate the inspectors from Iraq without council permission and suggested he resign.

He said Butler should speak for himself and not for UNSCOM, the U.N. Special Commission in charge of Iraqi disarmament. "For UNSCOM, the Security Council speaks. But if he cannot work in Iraq, then he should think of some other job," Lavrov said

Chinese Ambassador Qin Huasen

China's U.N. Ambassador Qin Huasen was visibly angry when he emerged from a Security Council session earlier Wednesday evening, learning of the attack only after the fact.

"There is absolutely no excuse or pretext to use force against Iraq," he said.

"We are very displeased and we urge the United States to immediately stop its military actions towards Iraq," China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi told reporters.

"The United States has not received permission from the U.N. Security Council and took unilateral action in using force against Iraq, violating the U.N. charter and international principles," he said.

China is one of five permanent members of the council along with the United States, Russia, Britain and France.

"We are very upset at the U.S. military action towards Iraq," Sun said., adding that "China supports peaceful resolution of international disputes and opposes the use of force in international relations."

France said it "regrets that Iraqi leaders were unable to show proof of the spirit of complete cooperation" demanded by the February 23 memorandum of understanding signed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.

Iraq's biggest Western arms supplier in the 1970s and 1980s, French soldiers fought alongside those from the United States and Britain in the 1991 Gulf War coalition that drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. France still takes part in Operation Southern Watch enforcing a no-fly zone over southern Iraq.

However, it has opposed military action in recent standoffs over Iraq's obstruction of U.N. inspections to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction and insisted that Baghdad should be offered an end to economic sanctions if it complied fully.

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Middle East commentators condemned what they called U.S. aggression against Iraq and mocked President Clinton for bombing Baghdad to distract attention from the impending impeachment vote.

As the Muslim world awaited the start of the holy fasting month Ramadan, which begins after religious authorities sight the new moon on Friday or Saturday, the United States was roundly denounced.

In the West Bank, at Dheisheh Camp, angry Palestinians burned the U.S. flag and denounced President Clinton for attacking Iraq on Thursday, just days after waving the Stars and Stripes to greet him on a landmark visit.

"Clinton, the dirty dog, wanted to cover up his filthy, sexual crimes by hitting Iraq," said a Palestinian man at a demonstration by 200 schoolboys.

The protesters clashed briefly on the edge of Bethlehem with Israeli soldiers who fired rubber-coated bullets at stone-throwers. A boy aged eight was hit in the leg, witnesses said.

"For Monica Lewinsky they hit Afghanistan and Sudan. And now, for Monica's eyes, they hit Baghdad," said a commentator on Al-Jazeerah, an outspoken satellite channel beamed from the tiny Gulf Arab state of Qatar.

The Saudi capital's al-Riyadh newspaper said the political aims of the big powers were not pure and did not adhere to human rights where their interests were concerned.

The Arabic daily said it was the duty of all Arabs to support the Iraqi people but the actions of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein made it impossible for any political maneuvering by Arab states to demonstrate this support.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, was noncommittal, saying, "Israel is outside the dispute, and in any case will take care of defending itself if the need arises."

Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority urged Arab states on Thursday to convene an emergency summit that would call for an immediate end to U.S. missile strikes on Iraq.

Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, general secretary of the Palestinian Cabinet, told Reuters: "We condemn this unjustifiable attack on Iraq and appeal for Arab countries to convene an urgent summit...to call without delay for a halt to the attacks."

U.N. Secretary -General Kofi Annan speaks to reporters

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York called it "a sad day for the United Nations and for the rest of the world."

In a statement read to reporters at the U.N. headquarters in New York, Annan said his thoughts were with the Iraqi people and the 370 U.N. humanitarian workers still in Iraq.

"Throughout this year, I have done everything in my power to ensure peaceful compliance with (U.N.) Security Council resolutions and to avert the use of force," Annan said.

"This has not been an easy and painless process," he said. "It has required patience, determination and the will to seek peace, even when all signs pointed to war."

Even in nations which supported Operation Desert Fox, support among the people was not widespread. Though Japan backs the United States and Britain, Yukari Ohi, 38, an office worker in Tokyo, said she opposed the use of force.

"I think the U.S. decision to attack Iraq was apparently intended to shift attention from the impeachment issue to war," Ohi said, noting that the airstrikes came as President Bill Clinton faced an impeachment vote.

But Misao Nozaki, a 47-year-old Tokyo restaurant owner, believes the bombing is justified. "Iraq has continued developing nuclear weapons in a way that goes against the common sense of the rest of the world," he said.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.