Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
UN envoy pick criticizes world body as anti-Israel
Haley says she’s prepared to deal in global diplomacy
WASHINGTON — Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, used her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday to attack the world body for what she called its bias against Israel, a position that puts her in sync with most of Congress.
Haley told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she “absolutely” supports President-elect Trump’s promise to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Few countries have done so because Jerusalem is disputed by Israelis and Palestinians, both of whom want it as their capital.
The two-term Republican governor of South Carolina — at 44 she is the nation’s youngest governor — lacks experience in international affairs and it sometimes showed at the hearing. But she argued that her efforts to solve problems and build coalitions in state government had prepared her for global diplomacy.
Trump has spoken dismissively of the U.N., and Haley’s role may be secondary in an administration that has signaled plans to upend U.S. foreign policy.
She sought to reassure the committee that she would try to moderate Trump’s negative views of the U.N. and of the NATO military alliance in Europe, which he called “obsolete” over the weekend.
“Those are his opinions as they stand now,” she said. “I look forward to communicating to him … the importance of alliances (and) that the U.N. matters.”
But she also appeared to back a less activist role for the U.N., saying it had “overstepped” and should not “insert itself into what other countries do.” And she declined to commit support for the U.N.-sponsored Paris Agreement to fight global warming, which more than 200 countries have signed.
Haley was upbraided when she said the year-old international accord to block Iran from developing a nuclear weapon will allow Tehran to eventually build a bomb, and that the Obama administration gave it billions of dollars to do so by easing sanctions.
“What you just stated is completely inaccurate,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. “I would encourage you to read the agreement.”
As has now become common with Trump’s top aides, Haley appeared at times to break with the president-elect — and with Rex Tillerson, Trump’s pick for secretary of State — when she repeatedly criticized Russia.
“We can’t trust them,” she said of authorities in Moscow. “The problem is there are no boundaries with Russia,” she added.
Haley said “we are not OK” with Russia’s seizure of Crimea, its military operations in Ukraine and its military intervention in support of President Bashar Assad in Syria.
“But we need their help in fighting ISIS,” another name for Islamic State, she said. The Obama administration says Russian forces have attacked groups seeking to oust Assad but have provided no help to the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
In contrast with Tillerson, Haley acknowledged that Russia committed “war crimes” in Syria by bombing civilian targets. And, unlike Tillerson, she said U.S. policy toward Russia “came up” when she met with Trump.
Trump, and many members of Congress, harshly criticized President Barack Obama’s decision not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution last month that condemned Israel’s continued settlement expansion in lands claimed by the Palestinians.
After the U.S. abstained, the measure passed, 14 to 0. Most of the world views the settlements as illegal and a major obstacle to peace.
“I would never abstain,” Haley said Wednesday. “That was the moment we should have told the world that we stand with our ally Israel.”