From President Bush’s press conference, 4/28/05:
“I think the United Nations is important. As a matter of fact, I’ll give you an example. Today I met with the United Nations representative to Syria, Mr. Larsen. He’s an impressive fellow. Now, he’s delivered — to Lebanon, excuse me — he’s delivered a very strong message to the Syrian leader, though, that the world expects President Assad to withdraw not only his military forces, but his intelligence services, completely from Lebanon.
And now he is in charge of following up to make sure it happens. I think that’s a very important and useful role for the United Nations to play. We have played a role. France has played a role. A lot of nations have played roles. But the United Nations has done a very good job in Syria — with Syria in Lebanon of making sure that the world expects the Lebanese elections to be free in May, without Syrian influence. He’s an impressive fellow. I applaud him for his hard work.
But there’s an example of why I think the United Nations is an important body.”