U.N. Chief Warns U.S. That Dues Debt Will Damage Ties

As the Clinton administration struggled to line up support in the U.N. Security Council for tougher diplomatic measures against Iraq, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned Friday that the United States cannot expect to use the world organization without “paying its way.”

Annan described as “unreasonable and regrettable” the failure by Congress to pass a carefully crafted legislative compromise that would have provided $819 million to start paying off Washington’s back dues to the U.N. The bill died after the administration and House Republicans failed to resolve their differences over an antiabortion measure included in the legislative package.

In a statement issued by his office in New York, Annan said the failure of the United States to pay off its debt will severely damage U.N. finances and make it far more difficult for the organization to cope with the crisis over arms inspections in Iraq.

“The United Nations plays a role that is indispensable to international peace and security as well as to the national security interests of the United States,” Annan said.

A Western diplomat at the U.N. said Washington’s failure to pay up is a partial explanation for the “difficulty in getting harder language on the Iraq resolutions.”

The diplomat added: “Frankly, it was absolutely predictable that something would happen where the U.S. would need the U.N. and it would have created a situation where the U.N. was not there when the U.S. needed them.”

As a result of the legislative deadlock and Congress’ adjournment for the year early Friday, it will be next spring at the earliest before Congress can reconsider the U.N. finance package.

But administration officials and congressional sources, who did not concur on much, agreed that, unless the dispute over abortion is settled, the measure may never pass. The language at issue prohibits U.S. aid to international organizations that perform or advocate abortions.

The legislative package was a combination of several carefully crafted and much-awaited measures: the appropriation for back dues at the U.N.; a requirement that the U.N. adopt bureaucratic reforms and reduce future U.S. dues; a restructuring of the State Department; and a $3.5-billion credit line to help the International Monetary Fund deal with world fiscal crises such as the one that has destabilized Southeast Asian stock markets.

The U.N. dues package was the result of a compromise between the administration and Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The bill would have presented the U.N. with a take-it-or-leave-it proposition: In exchange for the $819 million, the U.N. would have to cancel the rest of the U.S. debt, about $400 million by the U.N.’s reckoning and about $200 million by the administration’s calculations. In addition, the U.N. would have to accept a stringent series of reform measures and cut Washington’s share of its budget from 25% to 22% immediately and eventually to 20%.

Failure of the package leaves both the reforms and the dues cut in limbo.

Marc Thiessen, spokesman for Helms, said the lawmaker is determined to block any appropriation for U.N. dues that does not contain the reform and dues-cut language.

He blamed the administration, U.N. supporters in Congress and Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.)--who advocated the antiabortion language--for the debacle. He said the administration and Smith refused to look for a compromise that would have saved the package. And he said friends of the U.N. failed to back the compromise package because they wanted to pay the whole debt and were reluctant to order bureaucratic reforms.

Kempster reported from Washington, Turner from the United Nations.