PERSIAN GULF

ANNAN: IRAQ INVASION WAS ILLEGAL The American-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein was an illegal act and contravened the United Nations charter, U.N. Secretary-General Annan declared last night. In an outspoken interview with the BBC, Mr. Annan said the decision to invade should have been taken by the Security Council. “I think in the end everybody’s concluded it’s best to work together with our allies and through the U.N.” He added: “I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time – without U.N. approval and much broader support from the international community.” He said: “From the charter point of view, it was illegal.” His remarks drew an immediate response from the British government, which responded by saying the British attorney-general made the “legal basis…clear at the time.” Mr. Annan said he feared that Iraqi elections planned for January would not go ahead unless security considerably improved.

– Special to the Sun

BRITISH MAN SHOT DEAD IN RIYADH A British man was shot dead yesterday in a parking lot outside an eastern Riyadh shopping center, a Saudi Interior Ministry official said. An unidentified Interior Ministry spokesman gave no further details about the victim, who was shot near the Max discount shopping center in the eastern districts of the Saudi capital. Earlier, Saudi-owned TV station Al-Arabiya said the man was shot dead with four bullets while in the shopping center’s car park. Police ringed the area looking for whoever was behind the killing as an ambulance removed the victim’s body.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

SHARON SAYS HE’S NOT FOLLOWING ROAD MAP JERUSALEM – Israel is not following the “road map,” Prime Minister Sharon said in an interview published yesterday, acknowledging he is casting aside the American-backed peace plan for now, even as Washington insists it is still valid. But Israel’s ambassador to Washington later said Mr. Sharon’s plan of “unilateral disengagement” from the Palestinian Arabs – a withdrawal from Gaza and four West Bank settlements in 2005 – is a way of “jump-starting the road map in the future, and that is our policy.” In violence yesterday, 10 Palestinian Arabs were killed in two confrontations with Israeli troops, the highest single-day death toll in the West Bank since 2002. Among those killed were at least seven armed fugitives and an 11-year-old girl. The fighting came at the start of the Jewish New Year, and Israeli troops enforced a tight holiday closure of the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian Arabs will be barred from Israel at least through the end of the month. In an interview with the Yediot Ahronot daily, Sharon outlined his long-term vision for the region, saying that after the withdrawal, “it is very possible … there will be a long period when nothing else happens.” Mr. Sharon said that as long as there is no significant shift in the Palestinian leadership and policy, “Israel will continue its war on terrorism, and will stay in the territories that will remain after the implementation of disengagement.” According to polls published yesterday in Yediot and Maariv dailies, 58% of Israelis support Mr. Sharon’s disengagement plan, and about one-third oppose it. Both surveys had margins of error of 4.4 percentage points.

– Associated Press

SOUTH ASIA

MUSHARRAF TO REMAIN AS ARMY CHIEF ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf backed out of a pledge to step down as army chief, slamming the door yesterday on the country’s slow progress toward democracy five years after his bloodless coup. The information minister, Sheik Rashid Ahmed, said Mr. Musharraf made the decision in the best interest of the nation, but the move was denounced by the opposition as further evidence the general is not genuinely committed to restoring civilian rule.

“The president will keep both the posts. The national situation demands that he keeps the two offices,” Mr. Ahmed told the Associated Press.

When asked why Mr. Musharraf was going back on his promise to quit as army chief, Mr. Ahmed said: “The situation has changed.” The decision comes after weeks of speculation, some fueled by Mr. Musharraf himself, that he was considering backing out of an agreement he reached in December with a hard-line Islamic political bloc to give up his army post.

Mr. Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, said earlier this month he felt most Pakistanis wanted him to retain both positions. Yesterday, the opposition accused Mr. Musharraf of lying to the nation. The decision comes just one day after a visiting senior U.S. State Department official stressed the importance of democracy in Pakistan. Mr. Musharraf leaves for America on Friday and is due to meet with President Bush on the sideline of the U.N. General Assembly.

– Associated Press