U.S. Pushed Allies on Iraq, Diplomat Writes - Chilean Envoy to U.N. Recounts Threats of Retaliation in Run-Up to Invasion. As I have said many times, The UN is a tool of the U.S.
- From: rst0wxyz <rst0wxyz@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:27:31 -0700 (PDT)
U.S. Pushed Allies on Iraq, Diplomat Writes
Chilean Envoy to U.N. Recounts Threats of Retaliation in Run-Up to
Invasion
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/22/AR2008032201020.html
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 23, 2008; Page A11
UNITED NATIONS -- In the months leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of
Iraq, the Bush administration threatened trade reprisals against
friendly countries who withheld their support, spied on its allies,
and pressed for the recall of U.N. envoys that resisted U.S. pressure
to endorse the war, according to an upcoming book by a top Chilean
diplomat.
The rough-and-tumble diplomatic strategy has generated lasting
"bitterness" and "deep mistrust" in Washington's relations with allies
in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere, Heraldo Mu¿oz, Chile's
ambassador to the United Nations, writes in his book "A Solitary War:
A Diplomat's Chronicle of the Iraq War and Its Lessons," set for
publication next month.
"In the aftermath of the invasion, allies loyal to the United States
were rejected, mocked and even punished" for their refusal to back a
U.N. resolution authorizing military action against Saddam Hussein's
government, Mu¿oz writes.
But the tough talk dissipated as the war situation worsened, and
President Bush came to reach out to many of the same allies that he
had spurned. Mu¿oz's account suggests that the U.S. strategy backfired
in Latin America, damaging the administration's standing in a region
that has long been dubious of U.S. military intervention.
Mu¿oz details key roles by Chile and Mexico, the Security Council's
two Latin members at the time, in the run-up to the war: Then-U.N.
Ambassadors Juan Gabriel Vald¿s of Chile and Adolfo Aguilar Zinser of
Mexico helped thwart U.S. and British efforts to rally support among
the council's six undecided members for a resolution authorizing the
U.S.-led invasion.
The book portrays Bush personally prodding the leaders of those six
governments -- Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, Mexico and Pakistan --
to support the war resolution, a strategy aimed at demonstrating broad
support for U.S. military plans, despite the French threat to veto the
resolution.
In the weeks preceding the war, Bush made several appeals to Chilean
President Ricardo Lagos and Mexican President Vicente Fox to rein in
their diplomats and support U.S. war aims. "We have problems with your
ambassador at the U.N.," Bush told Fox at a summit of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation in Los Cabos, Mexico, in late 2002.
"It's time to bring up the vote, Ricardo. We've had this debate too
long," Bush told the Chilean president on March 11, 2003.
"Bush had referred to Lagos by his first name, but as the conversation
drew to a close and Lagos refused to support the resolution as it
stood, Bush shifted to a cool and aloof 'Mr. President,' " Mu¿oz
writes. "Next Monday, time is up," Bush told Lagos.
Senior U.S. diplomats sought to thwart a last-minute attempt by Chile
to broker a compromise that would delay military action for weeks,
providing Iraq with a final chance to demonstrate that it had fully
complied with disarmament requirements.
On March 14, 2003, less than one week before the invasion, Chile
hosted a meeting of diplomats from the six undecided governments to
discuss its proposal. But then-U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte and
then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell moved quickly to quash the
initiative, warning them that the effort was viewed as "an unfriendly
act" designed to isolate the United States. The diplomats received
calls from their governments ordering them to "leave the meeting
immediately," Mu¿oz writes.
Aguilar Zinser, who died in 2005, was forced out of the Mexican
government after publicly accusing the United States of treating
Mexico like its "back yard" during the war negotiations. Vald¿s was
transferred to Argentina, where he served as Chile's top envoy, and
Mu¿oz, a Chilean minister and onetime classmate of Condoleezza Rice at
the University of Denver, was sent to the United Nations in June 2003
to patch up relations with the United States.
In the days after the invasion, the National Security Council's top
Latin American expert, John F. Maisto, invited Mu¿oz to the White
House to convey the message to Lagos, that his country's position at
the United Nations had jeopardized prospects for the speedy Senate
ratification of a free-trade pact. "Chile has lost some influence," he
said. "President Bush is truly disappointed with Lagos, but he is
furious with Fox. With Mexico, the president feels betrayed; with
Chile, frustrated and let down."
Mu¿oz said relations remained tense at the United Nations, where the
United States sought support for resolutions authorizing the
occupation of Iraq. He said that small countries met privately in a
secure room at the German mission that was impervious to suspected
U.S. eavesdropping. "It reminded me of a submarine or a giant safe,"
Mu¿oz said in an interview.
The United States, he added, expressed "its displeasure" to the German
government every time they held a meeting in the secure room. "They
couldn't listen to what was going on."
Mu¿oz said that threats of reprisals were short-lived as Washington
quickly found itself reaching out to Chile, Mexico and other countries
to support Iraq's messy postwar rehabilitation. It also sought support
from Chile on issues such as peacekeeping in Haiti and support for
U.S. efforts to drive Syria out of Lebanon. The U.S.-Chilean free
trade agreement, while delayed, was finally signed by then-U.S. Trade
Representative Robert B. Zoellick in June 2003.
Mu¿oz said that Rice, as secretary of state, called him to ask for
help on a U.N. resolution that would press for Syrian withdrawal from
Lebanon. The United States had secured eight of the nine votes
required for adoption of a resolution in the Security Council. Mu¿oz
had received instructions to abstain. "I talked to [Lagos], and he
listened to my argument, and we gave them the ninth vote," he said.
.
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