U.S. envoy calls Mideast world's "defining challenge"

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Zalmay Khalilzad, the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on Tuesday called the crises in the Middle East the "defining challenge of our time" and struck a conciliatory note towards colleagues in the world body.

Speaking to reporters after his first U.N. Security Council meeting, Khalilzad, the former U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, said much was at stake in Iraq, not just for that country, but for the future of the region.

"And the future of the region of the broader Middle East, in my judgement, is the defining challenge of our time, the way Europe was for the long time the source of many of the world's security problems," Khalilzad said.

"Unfortunately now many of the security problems of the world emanates from that region," he said.

Khalilzad took up his post on Monday in succession to John Bolton, who left last December. Bolton had failed to win Senate approval for his nomination after serving a 16-month tenure in which he aggressively pursued U.S. interests but clashed with fellow ambassadors on tactics.

The new ambassador said he would listen, be respectful but stand up for American interests.

"I know that the United Nations can be a very effective and positive force," Khalilzad said. "I come from a lot of field experience, in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and I've seen first hand that working with others, working with the United Nations positive results can be achieved."

"And so with that perspective I will engage, I will work hard. I will listen. I'll be respectful," he said. "But I also will speak for what we believe and with the experience that I have what can work."