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| US sets last-minute drive to scrap UN reform plan |
| 2005-08-21 |
| The United States has launched a last-minute drive to scrap much of a draft plan for comprehensive U.N. reform just weeks before it is to be adopted at a world summit, Western diplomats said on Wednesday. One option put forward by Washington would be to return to square one and launch line-by-line negotiations on the document, the diplomats said, insisting on anonymity so as not to anger Washington. But another top diplomat involved in the negotiations dismissed the others' concerns, saying the initiative was a negotiating tactic the United States fully expected would be rejected by U.N. General Assembly President Jean Ping, who is leading the talks... The U.N. document, intended to serve as a blueprint for bringing the world body into the 21st century, touches on a broad range of issues from U.N. management reform -- a top U.S. priority -- to eliminating poverty, protecting human rights and ending the spread of nuclear arms. Adoption of the document, currently weighing in at 38 single-spaced pages, is meant to mark the climax of a Sept. 14-16 U.N. summit expected to draw more than 170 world leaders to New York. Bush is among those expected to attend although he has not formally responded to an invitation... "Their concern is that the draft is not in their view summit-worthy -- that it would be hard to convince Bush that it would be worth his while to come to New York to sign it," said an envoy involved in the talks, who also asked not to be identified by name. "To be fair, they are not a voice crying in the wilderness," said this diplomat, adding that developing nations also had reservations about much of the text. But the section of the document on development and poverty was the top target of the U.S. revisions, a tactic certain to anger developing nations, which make up the overwhelming majority of the U.N. membership, the diplomats said. This raises far more questions than answers. I wonder what the real story is? |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #1 Sounds to me like it is not so much as whats said in the document but whats left out. Lots of spaces for agendized reading into the document. The Bush admin has always been strong in reform. This document must be garbage. Probable has statements in it like-The US will pay for all third world nations and accept fault for all that goes wrong. |
| Posted by: 49 pan 2005-08-21 21:02 |