South Africa’s differences with the United States over the war in Iraq will not affect ”the many sided relations” South Africa had with the US, Deputy President Jacob Zuma said on Wednesday.
”We are very clear about the fact that the relations we have with, among others, the US, Britain and Australia, are based on more than just the issue of Iraq,” he told a function hosted by the Stop the War Campaign, one of the groups that has mounted protests against the US decision to invade Iraq.
Zuma said the South African government, throughout the prelude to and during the war in Iraq maintained that conflict and war could and should be avoided at all cost.
He said the principle of multilateralism and the provisions of the Vienna Convention informed the government’s decision and ”as such, government will be guided by any relevant decision taken by the UN”.
”The foreign policy of this government is not a haphazard affair that we make up as we go along. It is the product of a long and proud record of struggle for justice and of a tradition of broad consultative processes.”
He called on the United Nations to ensure that international law was observed on the conduct of war.
South Africa would continue to step up its efforts to contribute to the promotion of a system of multi-lateral institutions that served common global interests.
He urged South Africans to deepen their own ”people-to-people relations” with the Iraqi people.
He also congratulated all the South African Stop the War campaigners for the peaceful manner in which they carried out their protests.
”The Stop the War Campaign made the voices of the people heard and their rejection of war is now well-known and understood.” – Sapa