28 December 2016 03:59 pm
“To threaten the UN with financial sanctions would only result in the further waning of US influence in the UN and globally. All countries, especially countries like the US, must continue to work together to make the world a better place,” he told IPS.
Kohona also said that the US was a key player in the creation of the UN and the organisation has served US interests well over the years.
“One might even say that the US has manipulated the UN to serve its global interests,” he argued.
Mr. Kohana said against this background, to return to the confrontational attitudes of the early 1990s, when the US withheld its dues, would be self-defeating.
He said the US was no longer the only country with overwhelming financial clout.
US president-elect Donald Trump, peeved over a Security Council resolution last week chastising Israel over its continued settlements in the occupied territories, has signalled an implicit warning he will review his relationship with the UN.
Immediately after the resolution was adopted by a vote of 14–nil, with the US abstaining, Trump held out a warning: “As to the UN, things will be different after January 20.”
Currently, the US is the biggest single contributor accounting for 22% of the UN’s regular biennium budget, followed by Japan (9.7%), China (7.9%), Germany (6.7%) and France (4.8%) – all based on a country’s ‘capacity to pay’.