WESTERN UN delegates are heaping praise on the Obama administration for abandoning the Bush administration's confrontational approach, but others complain that the change is merely cosmetic. Western diplomats based in New York said US President Barack Obama has shown he wants to rebuild bridges with Washington's traditional allies, some of whom complained it was hard to negotiate with US delegations under former President George W. Bush. Obama's ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, is a refreshing change from some of her recent predecessors, European and other Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters “There's no more lecturing and dictating,” said a European diplomat “You feel that Susan Rice listens, as if she's taking you seriously. That wasn't always the case before.” One senior European diplomat refers to the new US envoy as “Human Rice” – a play on Rice's stated desire to re-engage in talks on human rights issues at the United Nations and the fact that some diplomats find her pleasant to deal with. But Rice's job will not be easy. While there is a lot of goodwill toward the new US administration, UN diplomats and officials say, US critics like Iran and Libya have secured high-profile positions at key UN bodies. Nicaragua's former Sandinista foreign minister Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann heads the UN General Assembly, a post he routinely uses to rail against the United States and Israel. D'Escoto will be succeeded by a Libyan. During its eight years in office the Bush administration was known for having disdain for the United Nations, preferring to bypass it on issues such as human rights, climate change and disarmament. That reputation was built before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and peaked in 2005-2006 while John Bolton was its UN envoy. He launched a campaign to root out UN corruption and reform the bloated bureaucracy, which diplomats said turned into an anti-UN crusade. Even before he was posted in New York, Bolton was a known for comments such as: “There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is only the international community, which can only be led by the only remaining superpower, which is the United States.” ‘New wine, old glass' The Obama administration is taking a different approach and wants issues like human rights, disarmament and climate change back in New York. As one European envoy said, “Their attitude is it's easier to change things from within than without.” Obama, Rice and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have also said they would be willing to engage in direct nuclear talks with Iran, which is under UN sanctions for refusing to halt an atomic program it insists is peaceful. While Western diplomats have welcomed Rice and her polite, approachable style, she has not impressed everyone. “It's new wine in an old glass,” said one senior envoy from a developing country. “There is no change in content. Their policy is the same as Bush. Gaza, Iran, Sudan, it's the same.” Iran's UN envoy Mohammad Khazaee said as much after a Security Council meeting last week in which Rice said US policy “will seek an end to Iran's ambition to acquire an illicit nuclear capacity and its support for terrorism.” The Iranians, who are not on the council, were furious. “It is unfortunate that, yet again, we are hearing the same tired, unwarranted and groundless allegations that used to be unjustifiably and futilely repeated by the previous administration,” Khazaee said in a statement. David Bosco, professor of international politics at American University in Washington, DC, said the Obama administration would be genuinely more receptive to the United Nations than its predecessor. “The specific lesson of the Iraq War was that the Bush administration had erred by marginalizing the organization,” Bosco said.
