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Bolton tangles with Annan deputy over US policy toward UN
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Bolton tangles with Annan deputy over US policy toward UN
US Ambassador John Bolton rebuked a stinging criticism of Washington's policy toward the United Nations by UN chief Kofi Annan's deputy, demanding it be promptly repudiated to avoid doing serious damage to the world body.
Addressing a New York conference on global leadership recently, UN Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown slammed the prevailing US “practice of seeking to use the UN almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing to stand up for it against its domestic critics.”
He noted that while Washington is constructively engaged with the UN on a host of issues such as Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon or Syria, “much of the public discourse that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as (conservative radio talk show host) Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.Exacerbating matters is the widely held perception, even among many US allies, that the US tends to hold on to maximalist positions when it could be finding middle ground,” Malloch Brown said.
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In a furious reaction, Bolton called the speech by Annan's deputy a “very grave mistake”. “We are in the process of an enormous effort to achieve substantial reform at the United Nations”, he said. To have the deputy secretary general criticize the United States in such a manner can only do great harm to the United Nations.
“Even though the target of the speech was the United States, the victim, I fear, will be the United Nations,” he added. “Even worse was the condescending and patronizing tone about the American people.”
Bolton said the only way “to mitigate the damage to the United Nations” was for Annan to “personally and publicly repudiate this speech at the earliest possible opportunity”. “Otherwise I fear the consequences not just for the reform effort but for the organization,” he added.
Annan's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Annan “stands by the statement made by his deputy and he agrees with the thrust of it”. “So there is no question of any action being taken against the deputy secretary general,” he added.
Malloch Brown’s speech should not be interpreted “as an anti-US speech” and in fact called for “greater US involvement in the United Nations and makes clear that the UN cannot work without US engagement and US leadership,” Dujarric said.
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