US ambassador to UN Nikki Haley resigns

WASHINGTON: The US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley will be stepping down from her post by the end of the year.

President Donald Trump announced the UN ambassador's resignation on Tuesday as she sat by his side in the Oval Office. Trump praised Haley for her "fantastic job", and solving a “lot of problems”.

“She told me probably six months ago that she would like to take a little time off at the end of this year,” Trump said to the media present there, adding that Haley could pick her next post if she wanted to re-join the administration. "We are all happy for you in one way, but we hate to lose - hopefully you'll be coming back at some point in a different capacity."

Trump also announced that he would name a successor for the UN ambassadorial post in two to three weeks.

Haley praised the president as well and called her time at the UN as honour of a lifetime. She dismissed any notion of her running for president in 2020 and instead stressed that she would be campaigning for President Trump. "There's no personal reason," she said, explaining her decision, "It's very important for government officials to understand when it’s time to step aside."

Commenting on her tenure at the UN and the administration's foreign policies, she said the US was respected. "Countries may not like what we do, but they respect what we do," she said. Even though her resignation from the post was not unexpected, it still was surprising. She had differences with President Trump on policy issues, which she had acknowledged in public.

Meanwhile, Senator Bob Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was of the view that Haley resigning "is yet another sign of the Trump administration's chaotic foreign policy." In a statement, he was concerned about the leadership vacuum she was leaving behind and "the national security impact of her departure at the time of continued disarray for this administration."