U.N. Diplomats Chafe at Bolton 'Discipline' 

By Reuters
February 2, 2006
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-un-bolton.html
 
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - John Bolton, Washington's feisty U.N. ambassador, tried to open his first meeting as head of the Security Council at 10 a.m. sharp on Thursday -- and was irked to find no other diplomats showed up.
``I brought the gavel down at 10. I was the only one in the room,'' Bolton said. The United States has just assumed the rotating presidency of the 15-nation council for the month of February.
``I believe in discipline. I think daily briefings constitute a form of intellectual discipline. Starting on time is a form of discipline,'' Bolton told reporters. ``I failed today.''
``I took a list of when they (council members) came in,'' Bolton said. ``We started just before 10:15.''
As part of a plan to modernize council operations, Bolton proposed that ambassadors gather daily at 10 a.m. for a briefing on the latest global political and peacekeeping developments.
Some ambassadors grumbled they already had too many commitments to attend daily sessions and others suggested perhaps two such briefings a week would suffice. Council members agreed to discuss the idea further on Friday.
Bolton, who describes the U.S. reform campaign as an ''irresistible force'' pitted against the ``immovable object'' that is the United Nations, also suggested U.N. officials circulate the text of planned council briefings 48 hours ahead of time.
That ran into trouble when some envoys insisted that could happen only if the text was translated into all six official U.N. languages -- Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
Bypassing the U.S. Senate, President George W. Bush sent Bolton to the United Nations last August with instructions to shake up the world body after findings of mismanagement and corruption in the $64 billion oil-for-food program for Iraq.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called later for a ''revolution of reform'' at the United Nations,