British spying on Annan "illegal": UN

United Nations, Feb. 27: Reacting with restraint anger to allegations that British intelligence spied on Secretary General Kofi Annan in the run-up to the Iraq war, the United Nations has said that such an activity, if true, is "illegal" and must be stopped.

"We would be disappointed if this were true. Such activities would undermine the integrity and confidential nature of diplomatic exchanges. Those who speak to the Secretary-General are entitled to assume that their exchanges are confidential," chief UN Spokesman Fred Eckhard said, adding, "it is indeed considered illegal." The Secretary-General would want this practice to stop if indeed it exists, he said.

Former British cabinet minister Clare Short, who had resigned as International Development Secretary protesting UK’s decision to join the US-led invasion of Iraq, claimed that Britain had spied on Annan in the run-up to the military action against Iraq.

About the allegations of spying and tapping of phones of Annan, UN under-secretary general Shashi Tharoor said, "all that we have got is media reports. But, of course, when what has been alleged by senior former cabinet minister, someone whom we know and whom we have worked with, we have to take it seriously." If any member state wants to know the Secretary General’s point of view on a particular issue, "all that they have to do is go and ask him, that’s the way this place functions, but it does not mean that way conversation that he has is for public consumption," he said. (PTI)