World
 
|
US disappointed by anti-Bush barbs at UN
By Tim Witcher
AFP
UNITED NATIONS
Petroleumworld.com 09 23 06
The United States on Friday expressed disappointment at barbed comments aimed at President George W. Bush at the UN General Assembly and said the speeches had damaged the United Nations.
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela called Bush "the devil" while Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used his speech to world leaders to launch a strong attack on what he called the Bush administration's "hegemony".
John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said "that behaviour doesn't do them any credit and it certainly doesn't benefit the United Nations."
"I think it is important, frankly, for people to hear this because I do think it is a reflection of what some of these people think."
Bolton added: "I think there is perhaps more of an inclination to vent those emotions here because they are more likely to get a positive reception."
In Washington, the top US military officer, General Peter Pace, highlighted a broader threat from Chavez. He singled out Venezuela when he said: "There have been increases in government actions (in Latin America) that are not friendly to us."
Pace added: "President Chavez is clearly not a friend to the United States."
The annual meeting of world leaders in New York is never an easy occasion for the global superpower. But the speeches by Chavez, Ahmadinejad and other critics left a sulphurous atmosphere around the UN headquarters.
"It has been one of the most shrill displays of anti-Americanism in recent years," an ambassador on the UN Security Council said of the speeches.
The Venezuelan president mercilessly lambasted the US leader with a speech 24 hours after Bush defended his attempts to bring democracy and liberty to the Middle East from the General Assembly stage.
"Yesterday the devil came here," said Chavez. "And it still smells of sulphur today."
Bolivia's left-wing president, Evo Morales, made a colourful anti-US statement by holding up a coca leaf, which is banned in the United States, to back his protest against the US handling of its war on drugs.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe also railed against the United States and Britain.
Ahmadinejad was less personal but no less brutal in his judgment of Bush's administration and Britain.
Ahmadinejad slammed the "hegemonic powers" who imposed "their exclusionist policies on international decision-making mechanisms" like the UN Security Council.
| While the United States leads the diplomatic charge for sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, the Tehran leader highlighted that some opponents "have abused nuclear technology for non-peaceful ends" and "some even have a bleak record of using them against humanity."
The US administration has put a brave face on the attacks, hinting that it is used to being on the firing line.
"People will judge for themselves how seriously to take the comments and the people who make them," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Becket said that Chavez and Ahmadinejad would have only limited influence.
"It is fairly clear that they are both people who wish to allege that the US and UK are in some way acting as a particular force and are in some way causing problems to the rest of the international community," Beckett told reporters.
"That is not how the UN works," she said of the Chavez shock tactics.
But what Chavez and Ahmadinejad said aloud, some other leaders uttered more quietly in their speeches to the assembly.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, speaking just moments before Bush, highlighted the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the US military occupation of Iraq and declared: "with much less we can change the sad reality of a great part of the world population" fighting hunger and disease.
AFP 22 2200 GMT 09 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels