Nothing new in May’s remarks, London bypassed UN many times

Statements by British Prime Minister Theresa May on the admissibility of military operations without the authorization of the UN Security Council, where Russia can veto such proposals, contain nothing new, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters at a press briefing on Thursday.

"From London's official point of view, military operations are permissible without the authorization of the UN Security Council, [so] there is nothing new in May’s statements. Here the problem is something quite different. Her predecessors had to blush, find excuses and apologize to the international community for these military operations without the UN Security Council’s authorization, which they deemed possible and permissible to conduct," the diplomat stressed.

She recalled that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized for the fact that the UK took part in the illegitimate Iraq war in 2003. "From the standpoint of many people in the West, these actions are admissible, but later they attempted to justify themselves, while the whole world is trying to stave off their destructive consequences," Zakharova noted.

The UN Security Council has 15 members, including five permanent ones, which have the power of veto. These are Russia, the UK, China, the United States and France. By applying this right, each of these countries can block any UN Security Council resolution regardless of how many votes were cast in favor of any document. Moscow calls its Security Council veto right the cornerstone of the UN’s architecture, and without that, it would lose its stability.