The Costa Rica Star recently reported on how Costa Rica views the conflict in Syria.

Not surprisingly, former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has a somewhat different view of U.S. President Barack Obama’s acceptance of a Russian proposal to act as negotiator in the poison gas elimination in Syria. Arias gave the Spanish press an earful Friday.

Arias claims it was not just Russia and China that would have opposed use of force against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad but that Obama was virtually isolated in the United Nations.

Arias, a past winner of the Nobel Peace Prize besides being two-time president of the country (1986-90 and 2006-10), told the tale this way: “When Obama found himself virtually isolated, he accepted the idea of the turning over of chemical arms by the Bashar al-Assad regime. Since we created the United Nations in 1948, the charter has been violated many times by unilateral attacks by the United States, as happened in Iraq.”

Arias said the U.S. must listen to the rest of the world before using military force.

He finished with saying a country that does not listen loses credibility, but “we are no longer talking about credibility rather a very big arrogance that the U.S. believes itself superior and above UN ruling.”