Resolutions United Nations

The five permanent members of the Security Council agreed Thursday that an international court should be set up to punish war criminals in the former Yugoslav federation. The United States, Britain, France and Russia had backed the concept but did not win China's support until Thursday, diplomats said. The text of a draft resolution they agreed on will ask Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to study ways to set up the court, which would be limited to atrocities in the Yugoslav conflicts.

The five permanent members of the Security Council agreed Thursday that an international court should be set up to punish war criminals in the former Yugoslav federation. The United States, Britain, France and Russia had backed the concept but did not win China's support until Thursday, diplomats said. The text of a draft resolution they agreed on will ask Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to study ways to set up the court, which would be limited to atrocities in the Yugoslav conflicts.

I'M ALL IN FAVOR of unilateral action when necessary. If, tomorrow, the U.S. or Israel -- or, for that matter, Lichtenstein -- were to attack Iran's nuclear weapons complex, I would applaud, no matter how many condemnatory resolutions the United Nations General Assembly passed. But at the moment, the U.S. is scrupulously multilateralist in handling our enemy, Iran, even as we alienate our allies with unilateral actions that serve no good purpose.

The presidents of five Central American countries agreed Monday on a plan to close Nicaraguan rebel bases in Honduras by Dec. 5 and called for a "constructive dialogue" to settle the guerrilla war in El Salvador. The accord, signed at the end of a three-day summit, was the most decisive step in two years of regional efforts to end the U.S.-backed Contra rebellion against Nicaragua's Sandinista revolution.