US actions on global arena a cause of crisis in the UN, says Russia’s rep

Moscow.  The policy of the United States in the international arena provokes crisis in the UN and undermines the world order, Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said on Thursday.

He was speaking at the World without the UN online round table hosted by the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund.

According to him, the crisis is taking place not in the UN, but in the world as such. Polyansky also drew attention to the fact that "since its inception, the UN has never existed in hothouse conditions," recalling the period after World War II and the Cold War crisis, TASS reports.

"The crisis that has arisen now, it really exists and it is not in the UN. To be honest, it is generally related to the policy of one single state - the United States. Let it be very powerful, albeit very influential, but this crisis is connected precisely with the desire of this state to expand its influence on everything, resolve all world issues for everyone, apply its right extraterritorially, monitor the implementation of its own decisions, which are submitted both extraterritorially and globally," the diplomat said.

Nevertheless, no one denies that the UN Security Council needs to be reformed, he said.

"The discussion has been going on for 20 years, and I cannot say that it is not making progress. We came to the conclusion that the Security Council should be expanded at the expense, first of all, of the states of Asia, Africa, South America. This is an evolutionary process, not revolutionary. I do not see anything terrible in it," Polyansky added.

"The same is true of the reform of the General Assembly. The process is under way, new structures are being created. Not everything is going smoothly, but again this is not critical. It is the behavior of the United States on the global arena, which is critical," the diplomat said.

The diplomat noted that this trend intensified during the presidency of Donald Trump.

"What will happen, if, after all, Trump is no longer the head of the United States, no one knows, but President-elect [Joe] Biden, as many believe, has already indicated his desire to strengthen the role of the United States in the UN by appointing a rather heavy-handed politician, at least introducing her as the future US representative to the UN, " Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN said.

The diplomat compared such a policy to a swing of pendulum.

"First the United States says that the UN plays absolutely no role, and now we hear them say that on the contrary, the UN plays an important role," Polyansky explained.

According to him, now it is necessary to understand what should be done with "attempts by the United States to play the role of the world's policeman."

"The most dangerous thing in recent years, I think, is [the US] attempt to extend its legislation, extraterritorial sanctions. Look at the situation with the introduction of sanctions against Iran, when practically the whole world is not in sync with the United States. The United States does not care about all this and pretend as if they live in a parallel reality," he said.

"The US insists that the sanctions committees that were created by previous resolutions on Iran should be revived. This is a parallel reality, this is a system that undermines the UN and the world order," Polyansky added.

"When a country lives in a reality it has invented for itself and is trying to apply, it is really dangerous," the diplomat concluded