UNITED NATIONS, Sept 24 (AFP) - Cuba on Friday said US President George W. Bush had "handcuffed" the United Nations, and that the war in Iraq had cost the world body its credibility and respect.
Following the US-led invasion of Iraq, the United Nations had ceased to exist as a "useful and diverse forum," and was now living through the worst period in its 60-year history, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told the UN General Assembly.
"It pales, it pants, it feigns, but it does not work," he said. "Who handcuffed the United Nations named by President Roosevelt? President Bush."
Citing the 1,000 US soldiers "uselessly sacrificed" in Iraq and the continuing insurgency there, Perez Roque insisted that the United States would eventually have no choice but to withdraw its troops.
He also argued that the unilateral actions of the United States precluded any valid reform of the United Nations -- an issue that has been a hot topic of debate at the General Assembly.
"It would take the superpower, which inherited the immense prerogative of governing an order conceived for a bipolar world, to relinquish its privileges," Perez Roque said. "And it will not do that."