Reply #71: Bush envoy's fury over 'insult' to US by British UN chief (London Times)

[Canuckistanian]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2216040,00.html

LONG-SIMMERING tensions between the Bush Administration and the United Nations leadership erupted into open warfare yesterday when Washington’s ambassador voiced outrage at criticism of the United States by the UN’s British second-in-command.

John Bolton, the US Ambassador to the UN, called on Kofi Annan, its Secretary- General, to “personally and publicly repudiate” criticisms of the US and its people by Mark Malloch Brown, his British deputy.

But Mr Annan, an old friend of Mr Malloch Brown who has promoted him to a series of top jobs in the UN system, retires on December 31 after a decade in office and was in no mood to back down.

“The Secretary-General stands by the Deputy Secretary-General and agrees with the thrust of his speech,” Mr Annan’s spokesman said last night. “The speech was not a mistake.”

n his speech on Tuesday, Mr Malloch Brown attacked the US for “too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping over too many years. From Lebanon and Afghanistan to Syria, Iran and the Palestinian issue, the US is constructively engaged with the UN,” he said.