ENGLAND and the UN

In "Straw tells UN to 'stop playing games'", Reuters (15/3/03) tells us that the UK is echoing US complaints about the UN, the only country to do so: "British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that there could be a key role for the UN in Iraq if countries opposed to the war stopped "playing games" and accepted the new reality. "Whether that vital role can be delivered doesn't just depend on our (British and US) good faith and commitment to the UN, which is there," he said at US Central Command war headquarters in Qatar. "It also depends on the degree to which others in the Security Council, particularly the permanent five, show a similarly constructive approach." Russia, France, and other countries suspect that Washington is building a stake for itself in the future of Iraq and argue that the UN should oversee reconstruction".

Ronald Hilton - 4/17/03