A growing dispute over the future division of authority at the UN has prompted showdown talk among diplomats and a warning from John Bolton, the US ambassador, that the US may look elsewhere to settle international problems.
What is at issue is how management reform proposals that would broaden the power of the secretary-general's office are being pressed assertively by Bolton and aggravating tensions between the 191-member General Assembly, with its entrenched bureaucracy, and the office of the secretary-general.
"It looks like it could be a real train wreck," said Edward Luck, a professor of international affairs at Columbia University. "It's a basic clash over who's in charge: Is it the General Assembly or is it the secretary-general?"
The clash is seen in crisis terms in the offices of Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
"This is serious stuff," said Mark Malloch Brown, Annan's chief of staff. "I think in many ways it is setting the outcome of whether the UN matters or not in 10 years."
Bolton turned down repeated requests to be interviewed on the subject. Distrust has deepened in the current debate over reform because many nations believe that the secretary-general's office has been tacking too close to the US in its effort to repair relations with Washington that were damaged over the war in Iraq and the scandal-ridden oil-for-food program.
"One gets the impression other countries are suspicious that the secretary-general and his aides are really puppets being manipulated by Washington," Luck said.
Annan, returning to headquarters after a 10-day trip to the Middle East and Pakistan, has scheduled an emergency meeting for Monday with the coalition of developing nations known as the Group of 77, which now has 132 members and is protesting a series of recommended changes that it believes are usurping the power of the General Assembly.
Maged Abdelaziz, the Egyptian ambassador, said member states questioned the motives of Bolton, who has a well-known history of disdain toward the UN. "When Bolton came, he presented 400 proposals," Abdelaziz said. "Let him present 1,700 proposals; we're capable of discussing them."
Among the proposed changes would be the creation of ethics and oversight offices answerable to the secretary-general and an insistence that the biennial budget to be approved next month anticipates the costs of new offices proposed as part of the reform package, like a Human Rights Council and a Peacebuilding Commission.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in