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United States expected little and got it at United Nations
World gathering shuns U.S. policy
Associated Press

NEW YORK - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at the 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly. The U.S. was forced to refrain from lobbying to punish Iran

for missing a deadline to stop its nuclear enrichment program.

U.S. officials had low expectations for the current U.N. meetings, marked by anti-American insults heaped on President Bush, and have scant accomplishments to show so far.

The United States made few direct requests of other nations at the annual opening session and took minimal risks. Bush administration leaders did tone down the rhetoric that has played poorly abroad and refrained from criticizing the United Nations itself.

The approach reflected an attempt at rapprochement with countries still at odds with the U.S. on many levels, and acknowledgment that several administration's goals and initiatives for the Middle East, North Korea and elsewhere have stalled.

Unlike in years past, Bush's address to the General Assembly did not make waves. It was Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who attracted the rock star treatment and Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, who drew applause when he called Bush "the devil."

"It does reflect a dissatisfaction with American power and American dominance in the world, a distaste for the war in Iraq, and the general foreign policy of the Bush administration," said Edward Luck, a professor of international relations at Columbia University in New York and an expert on the United Nations.

U.S. officials dismissed the anti-Bush remarks as demagoguery and pointed to what they say is successful or promising engagement on issues including Mideast peace and the effort to end the violence in Sudan.

"I think we had a good week," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "It was a good week for American diplomacy."

At best, however, it seemed more like a draw.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice undertook a fresh push on Sudan, where the government of the African nation is blamed for endorsing and allowing what the U.S. brands as genocide. Rice had to steer around international partners reluctant to confront Sudan's government, and it is not clear that Washington can make a difference quickly.

Wary of the United Nations' history of harsh criticism of Israel, the U.S. at first opposed an Arab-led drive for a Security Council meeting on the Mideast peace process that was held Thursday. Rice ended up proclaiming the meeting a success; her aides said it could prove an opening for renewed negotiations among Israelis and Palestinians.

Iran probably was the biggest disappointment for Washington during the week.

The administration once hoped the session would be a turning point in the long standoff. But U.S. allies prevailed on the White House to back down, for now.

The U.S. had little choice: Its drive to impose any U.N. penalties against Iran has hit a wall and Iran so far has suffered no consequence for missing an August deadline by the U.N. to shelve its disputed nuclear work.

Over dinner with other Security Council diplomats in her suite at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, Rice found herself reluctantly agreeing to give Iran some more time.

Rice said she has "great confidence" that the coalition she helped build against Iran remains committed to the U.N. demands and would move for penalties if Tehran balks.