The U.S. has a new ambassador to the United Nations. President George W. Bush has named former U.S. Senator John Danforth to succeed Ambassador John Negroponte, who recently assumed his duties as ambassador to Iraq.
The U-N Security Council unanimously supported the transfer of sovereignty in Iraq to an Iraqi interim government. “Now,” says Ambassador Danforth, “the task is to build on the momentum” towards greater international cooperation as demonstrated by the Security Council’s unanimous vote on the Iraq resolution:
“By seeking consensus and working together, there is much the United Nations can do, certainly in Iraq, but also in combating terrorism, in preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, in bringing peace to the Middle East and stability to Africa, among others. We face a conflict between civilization and the forces of chaos. The task before the United Nations is for civilization to find ways to pull together to meet the common challenges we face. It is with this task firmly in mind that I go to the United Nations.”
The U-N has a crucial role to play. President Bush says, “The U-N must fulfill its mission of peace by holding outlaw states to account, by aiding the rise of stable democracies, and by encouraging development and hope as alternatives to stagnation and bitterness”:
The U-N is serving these great purposes in many different places. In Iraq, the U-N is helping that newly sovereign nation to prepare for free and fair elections, and will help to draft a new constitution. From Africa to the Caribbean, the U-N is helping to turn societies away from old conflicts, to overcome persistent poverty, to fight AIDS and other diseases.”
The U.S. will work closely with the U-N to confront terrorism, and to fight the suffering and despair that terrorists exploit. The U.S. “supports all of these efforts,” says President Bush, and the U.S. knows “more will be necessary.”
