US News
US rejects UN official's criticism of role
By DPA
Aug 2, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Washington - The United States rejected Wednesday remarks by a top UN official who said Washington and London should not take the lead in trying to resolve the crisis in Lebanon.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's deputy, Mark Malloch Brown, told the Financial Times this week that the United States needs to do a better job of involving countries like France, Jordan and Egypt in finding a solution. He also questioned US and British credibility in the region because of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack responded to the criticism on Wednesday and urged Malloch Brown, who is British, to focus on carrying out crucial reforms at the United Nations rather than criticizing member countries.

'We are seeing a troubling pattern of a high official of the UN who seems to be making it his business to criticize member states and - frankly - with misplaced and misguided criticisms,' McCormack said.

'There's a lot more work to be done on UN reform,' he added. 'We think that, certainly, that is an area where he can concentrate his efforts.'

Malloch Brown criticized the United States and Britain as the Security Council has been working intensively on a resolution to end three weeks of fighting between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

'What is troubling to me is the US and UK now carry with them a particular set of baggage in the Middle East,' Malloch Brown said.

'It's not helpful for it again to appear to be the team that led on Iraq or even on Afghanistan,' he said. 'This cannot be perceived as a US-UK deal with Israel.'