The House of Representatives struck back at the United Nations yesterday by freezing the final payment of US arrears to the world body until the US regains its lost seat on the UN Human Rights Commission.
Brushing aside objections from the White House the Republican-led chamber voted 252-165 to condition the third and final arrears payment of £244 million due next year on Washington's return to the Geneva-based commission.
The measure does not affect this year's £582 million arrears payment. This protects it from a wave of outrage in Congress over last week's vote to remove the US from the 53-member UN Human Rights Commission for the first time since 1947.
Supporters said the measure was a modest compromise that allowed Congress to register its anger over the UN snub without unravelling a long-sought 1999 deal that allows payment of the US arrears in exchange for a lowering of US dues and peacekeeping contributions.
The measure - attached to a Bill that authorises fiscal 2002 and 2003 spending for the State Department and related agencies - gives UN members time to return the US to the commission at the next vote in May 2002, they said.