The European Union threw its political weight behind beleaguered UN Secretary-General &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/world/2002/06/27/31251.html ' target=_blank>Kofi Annan on Friday, but the United States again refused to back him and a U.S. senator repeated his call for the UN chief to resign.
At issue is his role in an oil-for-food program that was started in 1996 to help Iraqis cope with UN sanctions imposed after &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/main/2002/04/08/27433.html ' target=_blank>Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It allowed Hussein's government to sell unlimited quantities of oil provided most of the proceeds went to buy food, medicine and humanitarian goods and to compensate victims of the 1991 Gulf War, reports Newsday.
"Secretary-General Annan is a good secretary-general and the United States has tried to support him and the United Nations in every way that we can," Powell told Reuters.
It was the first positive comment from a top U.S. official since Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican investigating the oil-for-food program, said Annan should resign because of suspected abuses.
Powell, echoing the view of &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/main/2002/08/10/34249.html ' target=_blank>President Bush who avoided any endorsement of Annan this week said people should wait until congressional and independent probes of the program are complete before reaching conclusions.
"These investigations are not of Mr. Annan, they are of the oil-for-food program, so let's wait and see what the results of these investigations are."
The concerted U.S. decision not to endorse Annan for most of the week contrasts with the support of nations such as Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China, which rallied around the U.N. secretary-general, informs Houston Chronicle.
According to the Pakistan Dawn, Coleman, who is leading one of five US Congressional investigations into the oil-for-food accusations said: "You need credibility and you can't have that if the guy who is in charge is still in charge."
US Ambassador John Danforth, whose resignation as envoy to the United Nations was confirmed late Thursday, met Mr Annan. Mr Danforth told reporters that Mr Annan's future wasn't discussed, but he refused several times to back him.
The New York Times noted in an article on Saturday that "there is little doubt that the president's comments, coupled with the call this week for Mr Annan's resignation by Senator Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican, have alarmed senior United Nations diplomats and many of the institution's supporters.
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