'The secretary general stands by and agrees with the thrust of the speech' by Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, adding that the bulk of it concerned UN reform.
Malloch Brown created a storm at UN headquarters in a speech Tuesday evening that singled out the US for blocking efforts at renovating the UN headquarters built in the early 1950s, withholding its financial contributions to the UN and not recognizing the larger problems around the world.
'Exacerbating matters is the widely held perception, even among many US allies, that the US tends to hold on to maximalist positions when it could be finding middle ground,' Malloch Brown said.
The US ambassador at the UN, John Bolton, on Wednesday lashed out at Mallock Brown and demanded that Annan 'repudiates' the remarks.
But Annan defended his deputy, a Briton in charge of the daily activities at the UN's headquarters in New York. Mallock Brown is a former World Bank official and head of the UN Development Programme.
Dujarric also rejected Bolton's accusation that Mallock Brown made a 'grave mistake' by criticizing the US and the American people.
Bolton declined to say whether he would call for Malloch Brown's resignation as a result of the speech, but insisted the US was heavily involved in overhauling the organization.
'To have the deputy secretary general criticizing the US in such a manner can only do great harm to the UN,' Bolton told reporters.
In his speech on the UN's reform efforts, Malloch Brown particularly criticized the US for creating obstacles to the renovation of UN headquarters, saying 'the only government not fully supporting the project is the US.'
'Too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping over too many years - manifest in a fear by politicians to be seen to be supporting better premises for what they unjustly regard as overpaid, corrupt UN bureaucrats - makes even refurbishing a building a political hot potato,' he said.
'And when the US does champion the right issues like management reform, as it is currently doing, it provokes more suspicion than support,' Malloch Brown said.
The UN deputy also hinted that Washington was keeping the American people in the dark about its constructive engagement with the UN in a number of crises around the world, from Lebanon to Afghanistan and Syria.
'But that (engagement) is not well known or understood, in part because much of the public discourse that reaches US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News,' Malloch Brown said, referring to the most strident critics of the UN.
'That is what I mean by 'stealth' diplomacy: the UN's role is in effect a secret in Middle America even as it is highlighted in the Middle East and other parts of the world,' he said.
Responding to those remarks, Bolton accused Malloch Brown of being 'condescending and patronizing' in tone about the American people.
Malloch Brown also said there has been an 'understandable hostility' among UN members to the perception that the UN Security Council - in particular the five permanent members - was seeking a more powerful role over management and human rights.
He also waded into the controversial debate over enlarging the Seucurity Council, saying that the five veto-wielding members 'cannot be seen as representative of today's world.'
Malloch Brown noted that, aside from the US, the four other permanent members (Russia, France, Britain and China) contribute less to the UN budget than Brazil, Japan, Germany and India, which last year unsuccessfully sought to become permanent members of the Security Council.
The US remains the top contributor to the UN's budget, followed by Japan and Germany.
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