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Will they reconcile?
Dispatch
Filed by Tarek Atia
March 14, 2001
Although it might sometimes seem like the world will be
forever inundated in conflicts and war, a global body like
the United Nations, founded as it was on the basic
principle of the supremacy of law worldwide, can offer
us hope that the rule of law will prevail.
That will always be only a distant hope, however,
argued Mohamed Hassanein Heikal in his address to
the opening ceremony of the American University in
Cairo's 13th International Model United Nations
Conference, unless the tumultous relationship between
the United States and the global body is made more
concrete.
The events of the past 45 years, ever since the US took,
in Heikal's words, "its last major stand as a cooperative
and integral member of the UN" when it opposed the
tripartite aggression on Suez in 1956, have been
marked by either the US distancing itself from the global
body, as if to say "let them discover that without the US
the UN would be nothing but words without action,
resolutions without fire," or more recently, a trend
toward camouflaging its own strategic interests in the
guise of actions taken, or not taken, by the global body -
eg action against Iraq, and none against Israel.
It is imperative to find a reconciliation between the US
and the UN - for the sake of the supremacy of law.
Heikal's provocative commentary was meant to inspire
the students taking part in the university's United
Nations simulation, which brings together students from
around the world, as well as from other Egyptian
universities.
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