Islam Times - Trump wants UN to serve American interests

Islam Times - US President Donald Trump’s recent criticism of the United Nations is not surprising because he represents the view that the world body must serve US foreign policy, says an analyst in Virginia.

Keith Preston, editor of the Attackthesystem.org made the remarks on Sunday, after Trump criticized the UN ahead of his address to the annual gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly next week.

In a video message on his Twitter page, Trump said Saturday that the UN has "tremendous potential" but has "not lived up to that potential."

Trump is set to address the General Assembly on Tuesday. He will also hold meetings with heads of South Korea, Egypt, France, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Trump has frequently criticized the UN, claiming that the United States does not get the respect it deserves despite its contributions to the world body – currently at 22 percent of the annual budget.

“The first thing that as to be understood about the United Nations is that the UN was created in the late 1940s after the conclusion of the World War II and essentially it was a way for the victorious allied forces at WWII to run the world in their own interest,” Preston said.

“That has always been the principle purpose of the United Nations,” he added.

Preston argued that there were two viewpoints within the US about the UN: One that saw the world body as a “means through which the United States can simply manage world affairs.”

Supporters of this approach believe that the US should stay in charge of the UN but at the same time work with other major powers to align their interests in running the world, Preston argued.

The second group, the analyst argued, comprised mostly the people on the right end of the political spectrum in the US who doubted the UN’s ability to find solutions to various issues that were supported by all member-states.

The Iraq War presented a good example, Preston said. He noted that in 2003 the US failed to get a UN mandate to attack Iraq but simply decided to invade the country “on their own initiative.”

“Another example is Israel,” He said. “The United Nations has repeatedly issued resolutions condemning Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and aggressions against other nations and often when a vote is taken for this it will be only the United States and Israel that vote against such resolutions.”

Trump is a representative for the second view, Preston further argued.

“I think that the sectors of the American elite that Trump represents would most likely prefer to have UN that is present and functional but is more directly influenced by American foreign policy objectives,” he said.