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Saturday, Dec 18, 2004

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Bush as U.N. peacemaker

By Simon Tisdall

The United States-United Nations attrition is only on hold.

THE BUSH administration has distanced itself for the time being from congressional demands for the resignation of the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.

But acute U.S.-U.N. tensions persist over oil-for-food corruption investigations, U.N. handling of Iran's nuclear programmes, and Iraq's U.S.-sponsored elections next month.

The United States' resentment over what officials regard as lack of U.N. support for the Iraq polls is barely contained. The issue topped the agenda in talks on Thursday between Mr. Annan, the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and his designated successor, Condoleezza Rice.

The U.S. craves the legitimacy and expertise that only the UN can give the process. Because of security concerns, only 19 U.N. electoral staff are in Iraq, compared with 266 who oversaw Afghanistan's polls in October. Mr. Annan ordered non-Iraqi U.N. personnel to leave last year after a bomb killed his senior envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and destroyed the U.N.'s Baghdad headquarters.

The U.S. and other Security Council members have since failed to provide a promised U.N. protection force.

The U.N. is planning a limited expansion of advisory and technical operations beyond Baghdad before the January 30 polls. But it believes staff remain at great risk, and insists the conduct and monitoring of the elections are the responsibility of Iraq's electoral commission.

American critics suspect Mr. Annan has political motives. Illogically, they blame him for the Security Council's refusal to endorse the war. His recent condemnation of the invasion as illegal infuriated neo-conservatives.

Allegations arising from Saddam Hussein's subversion of the defunct U.N. oil-for-food programme have thus become a pretext for demanding Mr. Annan's head.

Given an opportunity on December 2 to support Mr. Annan, George W. Bush declined. Instead, the President resurrected an old threat — that U.S. funding, 20 per cent of the U.N. budget, depended "on a good, honest appraisal of that which went on [sic]."

But a week later, after 130 countries voiced support for Mr. Annan and the U.N. General Assembly gave him a standing ovation, the administration backed off.

Eating humble pie on his boss's behalf, Ambassador John Danforth told the U.N.: "It is important for us, the U.S., to clarify our position. We are not suggesting or pushing for the resignation ... of the secretary-general. No one has cast doubt on [his] personal integrity. No one. And certainly we don't."

Perhaps Mr. Danforth protested too much. In any case, this abrupt shift may be more about timing than international opinion. And it followed an embarrassing reminder of past U.S. hypocrisy over Saddam Hussein's regime.

Democratic senator Carl Levin noted that the White House had contributed "very significantly" to the oil-for-food problems by turning a blind eye to much more lucrative, long-running, illegal oil and trade deals between Saddam Hussein and U.S. allies such as Jordan and Turkey.

The New York Times thundered that these backdoor schemes put oil-for-food scams in the shade. Demands for Mr. Annan's head "seem wildly premature," it said. This may be more stay of execution than reprieve. Mr. Annan symbolises all that the neo-cons most resent: an international bureaucracy presuming to set limits on U.S. power.

Meanwhile, Washington is pressing for Mohamed ElBaradei, the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency chief, to stand down. Dr. ElBaradei has not been forgiven for being right about Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Now he is accused of being soft on Iran. Last week's revelations that the U.S. tapped his telephone conversations with Iranian diplomats recalled allegations about U.S. bugging of Mr. Annan's office.

If Mr. Annan is safe for now, the main reason may be Mr. Bush's purported desire to strengthen his second-term multilateralist credentials. He is heading for Europe in February where support for the U.N. is strong. He aims to mend fences, particularly in Germany, and rally Nato support in Iraq. But U.S.-U.N. attrition is only on hold. —

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