At
UN,
Al Khatib Confirms He's Still a Jordan Senator, Contract Still in Flux,
Crackdowns Minimized as "Accidents"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 4 -- The UN's Special Envoy to Libya Abdul Ilah
Al-Khatib confirmed to Inner City Press on Monday that he is
still a
paid Senator in Jordan. Meanwhile he ostensibly serves only the UN.
Al
Khatib took
questions from the press after briefing the Security Council about
Libya. Inner City Press asked him if he is still a Senator from
Jordan, paid by Jordan, and how that is consistent with his UN role.
I
am not a UN
staff, he replied. The details of my contract are still being worked
out.
After
the
on-camera stakeout, he told Inner City Press he wish he had been
contacted before the first story
in this series.
But Inner
City Press
has repeatedly asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky and Farhan Haq to
explain al Khatib's arrangement with the UN, in light of an Office of
Legal Affairs memo calling his double service impermissible under UN
rules and Charter.
Inner
City Press
also asked Khatib for his views on the treatment of protesters in
Jordan. He said that “other than one or two accidents,” Jordan
has allowed protests to take place. But if that changes?
Numerous
UN
sources have told Inner City Press of deep disquiet, even quite close
to Ban Ki-moon, with Khatib's double service, and the selection of a
sitting Senator from a country facing protests to represent the UN in
Libya.
Ban & al-Khatib, Jordan pay not shown, who's
playing whom?
Some
Council
members have expressed, not for attribution, dissatisfaction with
Khatib. That may explain the UN's move to its British former envoy to
Nepal Ian Martin to work on a mission to Libya.
It
is now
understood that the nomination of Ian Martin came not from the UK
Mission but from within the UN Secretariat itself. Duly noted.
* * *
On
Libya,
Ban
Ki-moon 's Envoy Khatib Works in Jordan, Ruling Snubbed,
Private Planes Demanded from UN
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March
27, updated -- The
ostensibly full time envoy to Libya of UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Abdul Ilah Al Khatib, “does have
some responsibilities still in Jordan,” Ban's acting deputy
spokesman Farhan Haq told Inner City Press on March 25.
For
week Inner
City Press has asked the UN about Al Khatib still being paid as a
Senator in Jordan and about his business interests including as a
director of Jordan Ahli Bank which is a co top 20 owner of Union de
Banques Arabes et Francaise with the Gaddafi controlled Libya
Foreign
Bank.
Now,
Inner
City
Press has learned that after this questioning began, UN staff wrote
to the UN Office of Legal Affairs seeking a ruling on Al Khatib's
unprecedented double service. OLA, with Ban's top lawyer Patricia
O'Brien not there, has rendered the obvious ruling, that such double
service is not permissible for a staff member or UN Envoy.
Tellingly,
Ban
has
yet to acting on the ruling by his legal department, the staff tell
Inner City Press. Rather, as Haq belatedly put it on March 25,
“because of the speed with which we felt the need to appoint an
envoy, some of the terms of his contract are still being worked out.”
But
these
conflicts of interest were obvious before
Ban offered Al Khatib the
job, after being turned down by Lakhdar Brahimi and Kemal Dervis.
Close observers say that while Al Khatib may not be able,
particularly with these conflicts, to negotiate any less bloody
outcome in Libya, he negotiated masterfully with Ban Ki-moon.
Once
Ban
publicly
named Al Khatib as his envoy without getting any commitment to stop
outside activities, Al Khatib has all the leverage. He is refusing to
stop his activities, the sources say, and is in fact demanding that
he remain based in Amman, Jordan.
Al
Khatib wants UN
staff assigned to him there -- already he “borrowed” a Jordanian
spokesman from the Beirut-based UN Economic and Social Council for
Western Asia, run by a Jordanian -- and demands to be met at airports
and flown on private planes.
“Al Khatib is a
great negotiator,” a well place source tells Inner City Press,
“just not in or for Libya.”
With
Al
Khatib
serving as a Senator in Jordan, protesters have recently been killed
in that country. When Ban unveiled Al Khatib as his envoy at a
tightly controlled press stakeout, Inner City Press asked, “What
about Jordan?” The two men walked away from the microphone. Last
week, Inner City Press was not allowed to ask Ban about Khatib. Watch
this site.
Update: at the UN
noon briefing on March 28, the day after the above was published, Ban's
spokesman Martin Nesirky declined Inner City Press' request that he
confirm or deny the OLA memo and that Khatib wants to be based in Amman
and use only private jets.
Nesirky said
that "some details are still being worked out" and he had "nothing to
add to that." Now Ban is headed to London - no chance to ask him.
Might Khatib fly there on a private jet?
, 
