NIKKI HALEY RESIGNS, SAYS NOT TO RUN AGAINST TRUMP

● Indian-American US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley resigned on Tuesday. Trump said that she had done a “fantastic job” and would leave by year end.

Washington, Oct. 9: Nikki Haley resigned on Tuesday as the US ambassador to the United Nations, in the latest departure from President Donald Trump's national security team.

Meeting Haley in the Oval Office, Trump said that Haley had done a ‘fantastic job’ and would leave at the end of the year.

“She told me probably six months ago,” Trump told reporters, that '”I want to take a little time off.'”A successor will be named “in the next two or three weeks,” he said.

Haley was coy on her reasons for quitting, saying only that it was “important to understand when it's time to stand aside” after a string of challenging jobs.

Responding to media speculation, she insisted that she was not planning to run for president against Trump in 2020, when she might be seen as a more moderate Republican alternative.

“No I'm not running,” she said emphatically.

The former governor of South Carolina, Haley took the diplomatic job with little experience in foreign policy, but quickly became the full-throated voice at the United Nations for the often unpopular Trump agenda.

Haley has pressed for a hard line on Iran, justified US cuts to foreign assistance and led the US in bolting from the UN Human Rights Council, accusing it of bias against Washington and close ally Israel. At the recent UN General Assembly session, Haley took the highly unusual step for a senior diplomat of joining street protesters against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, shouting from a megaphone that the leftist leader should leave office.