World News 24-09-2003 Bush Calls For UN Help who: George W Bush what: Addresses United Nations where: NEW YORK when: Yesterday snippet: "America and France agreed yesterday to set aside their dispute over the war in Iraq in order to take joint action against the spread of weapons of mass destruction," according to The Telegraph. "A year after warning the United Nations it would become `irrelevant` if it did not act against Saddam Hussein, President George W Bush returned to the General Assembly to tell the UN it faced `great work in the world, work we must do together`." But contrary to The Telegraph`s positive spin, the Mirror reports that French president Jacques Chirac "blasted" his US counterpart after the speech, saying that the war in Iraq "shook the multilateral system". And The Guardian says Mr Bush is "increasingly isolated on the global stage" as a result. Fragile France-American relations were not helped when Mr Bush "made an implicit jab at M. Chirac," writes David Usborne in The Independent, "rejecting French proposals for an immediate transfer of symbolic sovereignty to the Governing Council in Iraq followed by the granting of full authority within nine months." UN secretary general Kofi Annan "condemned the doctrine of preemptive military intervention," writes The Guardian`s Gary Younge, "arguing that it could lead to the unjustified `lawless use of force` and posed a `fundamental challenge` to world peace and stability". Nevertheless, the speech was a successful show of strength from a president who "was speaking to a domestic audience just as much as he was to the international community," notes The Scotsman`s analysis today, suggesting that Mr Bush sought to stiffen domestic resolve as much as to remind the rest of the world that "there is no neutral ground` in this war". [... more]

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