U.S. President Donald Trump and Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speak at the United Nations last week in New York. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 25 (UPI) -- While the world's atten­tion focused on U.S. Presi­dent Donald Trump's high-level meetings and his first address at the U.N. General Assembly, observers in Washington were also closely watching Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Haley, the 45-year-old former governor of South Carolina, had no foreign policy experience be­fore assuming her diplomatic post in January. Since then, however, she has proven to be politically adept and forceful in defense of the Trump administration's agenda. Many people say Haley is the most likely candidate to replace U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who officially is her boss, should Tillerson resign or be squeezed out.


Many also say that she aims to one day run for the White House.

Haley, who was born Nimrata Randhawa, is the daughter of Indi­an Sikh immigrants from Punjab. She is the first Indian-American to hold a Cabinet-level position in the U.S. government and only the second to be elected governor of a U.S. state.

Among her successes at the United Nations were twice per­suading the U.N. Security Council - including China and Russia - to tighten sanctions against North Korea in response to Pyongyang's missile tests. Her efforts were praised by both Republicans and Democrats in Washington, as well as by top U.S. allies.

Despite her lack of prior for­eign policy experience, people who know Haley say they are not surprised by how she has per­formed. Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group consultancy, said: "Nikki is a politician and has worked as a politician her whole life. She's more flexible and will­ing to be charismatic. The lack of experience has not hurt her."

Haley has strongly supported Trump's hard-line position toward Iran - in contrast to Till­erson's more measured approach - and is believed to support U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Tehran. She has argued that, under the deal, the world will be facing "another North Korea" within a decade.

She also is outspoken in her support for Israel. In her first ad­dress to the United Nations as U.S. ambassador, she said: "Nowhere has the U.N.'s failure been more consistent and more outrageous than in its bias against our close ally Israel."

While he was in New York, Trump was accompanied by Haley nearly as often as he was by Tillerson, even though Tillerson is by far a more senior official. Moreover, prior to the president's New York meetings, it was Haley and national security adviser H.R. McMaster who briefed the media.

Haley has consistently denied that she would like to be secretary of state and she was reportedly of­fered and refused the position by Trump before he took office. That was before her U.N. experience, however, and before she had de­veloped a taste for diplomacy. Her strong showing in New York may lead her to reconsider if Trump were to make the offer again.

"She would be a more capable spokeswoman for the Trump ad­ministration's foreign policy" than Tillerson, Bremmer said.

This article originally appeared at The Arab Weekly.