As
US Brags on
Ban, NAM &
Iran, Of
August 8
Meeting &
Non-Answers
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 13 --
When UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon came
to
the Security
Council on the
morning of
August 8,
instead of
going
straight into
the Chamber
for the meeting
on Mali he
entered
through
a side door.
But he did not
find what he
was looking
for, and soon
went into the
Chamber.
Inner
City Press, on
the scene,
tweeted the
misdirection
play.
Five
minutes later,
US Ambassador
Susan Rice
arrived at the
Security
Council. After
the Mali
session she
went through
the so-called
Quiet
Room, soon to
be followed by
Ban Ki-moon
and his
entourage.
To
a US Mission
spokesman on
the scene,
Inner City
Press asked
what this
meeting was
about, and
when it had
been
scheduled.
There was no
definitive, or
reportable,
answer.
Then
at the August
8 UN noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
Inner
City Press:
Iran has said
that the
Secretary-General
has confirmed
that he will
attend the NAM
meeting at the
end of this
month. This
is in turn
giving rise to
some concerns,
and I say, I
guess, in
Washington and
Israel that he
would send a
wrong message.
Are the
Iranian
Government
statements
that he is
going to the
NAM meeting
incorrect or
is he going?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
We are
obviously
aware of those
reports. Um, I
cannot
confirm them,
and I’m not
going to
comment on
them.
Now
Inner City
Press is
informed of
"bragging"
that the US
has
"demarched"
Ban Ki-moon
not to go to
the
Non-Aligned
Movement
meeting in
Iran at the
end of this
month.
It
has not
been possible
to put the
question
to Ambassador
Rice in the
interim.
But Ban, now
in
South Korea
and then Timor
L'este, has
made no
announcement.
Watch
this site.
, 
