Many U.N. officials and diplomats see the Bush administration as an enemy of the United Nations, but U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday cooperation with the U.N. has blossomed on his watch.
U.S. relations with the United Nations began suffering after the U.N. Security Council failed to explicitly back the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and former Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared the war illegal.
From 2005-06, Washington”s U.N. ambassador was outspoken conservative John Bolton, a sharp critic of the world body. U.S. officials repeatedly questioned the United Nations about alleged misdeeds in North Korea and elsewhere.
Washington also tried and failed to oust Mohamed ElBaradei as head of the Vienna-based U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency because it felt he was too soft on Iran, which Western countries suspect wants nuclear arms — a charge Iran denies.
But Rice, who has been with U.S. President George W. Bush from the very beginning, first as his national security adviser and later as his chief diplomat, said cooperation with the United Nations has flourished since Bush took office in 2001.
“The United States under President Bush has actually used the mechanisms and the councils of the United Nations more than they”ve been used maybe ever,” she told reporters after a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
She cited many examples of how Bush embraced the U.N. — insisting that Security Council resolutions be respected, dealing with human rights and “tyranny” in Zimbabwe and Myanmar.
Other examples were Tuesday”s rare joint effort on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the United States and Russia, which have clashed repeatedly in recent months over Russia”s August invasion of Georgia.
Together Moscow and Washington drafted the council”s first resolution on the Middle East conflict since May 2004. The council adopted it on Tuesday.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said he looks forward to “a new era of partnership” with U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, indicating he hoped to move on from troubled U.N. ties with the Bush administration.
