Originally issued as a CGS press release on January 8, 2007.
President George W. Bush recently nominated current U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, to be the new U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
The move comes nearly one month after Ambassador John Bolton told President Bush that he would terminate his service in the Bush Administration after his recess appointment expired at the end of 2006. Mr. Bolton’s nomination was repeatedly blocked by the Senate and was heavily contested by Citizens for Global Solutions and an array of other advocacy organizations that want to see the U.S. restore its 60-year leadership and partnership with the U.N.
“Zalmay Khalilzad could be a refreshing change as the next U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.,” said Citizens for Global Solutions Executive Vice President Don Kraus. “This is an important position at an important time in our nation’s history. It was vital that the president nominate a new Ambassador and do it quickly. Hopefully Senator Biden and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will expedite Khalilzad’s confirmation hearing.
“Ambassador Khalilzad understands the importance of the U.S.-U.N. relationship and seems committed to making the U.N. stronger and more effective,” Kraus continued. “We’re going to the U.N. for help on Iran, Darfur, and North Korea, as well as working there to promote human rights and defeat terrorism. For its part, the U.N. needs the U.S. and its Ambassador to facilitate reform and bring countries together to cooperate on the world’s most pressing challenges.”
In 2000, while at The Rand Corporation, Ambassador Khalilzad helped author a bipartisan report on foreign policy and national security that said: “In our view, sustaining support for this approach will require rebuilding the effectiveness of the UN as an institution and reestablishing US domestic support for the UN. This will require paying the dues that the US owes to the UN, while pressing for needed institutional reforms.”
Citizens for Global Solutions believes that the fact that our nation could have an Ambassador at the U.N. who recognizes the importance of “reestablishing US domestic support for the UN” is a potential welcome change from some past Bush Administration officials, who have sought to discredit the institution publicly even as they privately worked there to achieve U.S. goals.
