Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for the UN envoy Indian-American Nikki Haley on Wednesday said her job in this diplomatic position would be to
rebuild confidence of Americans in the world body as many of them believe that actions of the UN does more harm than good.
Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for her confirmation hearing, 44-year-old Haley said that any honest assessment finds it as an institution that is often at odds with American national interests and American taxpayers.
“Nowhere has the UN’s failure been more consistent and more outrageous than in its bias against our close ally Israel,” the South Carolina Governor alleged, adding that in the UN General Assembly session just completed, the UN adopted 20 resolutions against Israel and only six targeting the rest of the world’s countries combined.
In the past 10 years, the Human Rights Council has passed 62 resolutions condemning the reasonable actions Israel takes to defend its security.
Meanwhile, the worlds worst human rights abusers in Syria, Iran and North Korea received far fewer condemnations, she rued. “That cannot continue,” Haley asserted.
Referring to UN Security Council resolution against Israel, she described this as damaging.
“Last month’s passage of UN Resolution 2334 was a terrible mistake, making a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians harder to achieve,” she said.
The mistake was compounded by the location in which it took place, in light of the UNs long history of anti-Israel bias, she added.
Haley told lawmakers that as the top American diplomat at the UN, she will not abstain when the UN seeks to create an international environment that encourages boycotts of Israel.
“In fact, I pledge to you this: I will never abstain when the United Nations takes any action that comes in direct conflict with the interests and values of the US,” she said.
Without “fundamental changes” at the UN, Haley said she cannot envision making the same kind of report to the American people as their Ambassador. “We contribute 22 per cent of the UNs budget, far more than any other country,” she said.
“We are a generous nation. But we must ask ourselves what good is being accomplished by this disproportionate contribution. Are we getting what we pay for?” she asked.
She applauded the efforts of the Congress to explore ways the United States can use its leverage to make the United Nations a better investment for the American people.
“My goal for the United Nations will be to create an international body that better serves the interests of the American people,” she said.
Today, she argued, more and more Americans are becoming convinced by actions like the passage of Resolution 2334 that the United Nations does more harm than good.
“The American people see the UN’s mistreatment of Israel, its failure to prevent the North Korean nuclear threat, its waste and corruption, and they are fed up,” she said.
“My job our job is to reform the UN in ways that rebuild the confidence of the American people. We must build an international institution that honours Americas commitment to freedom, democracy, and human rights,” Haley said.
Source: News18