Obama
to Meet New
Qatar Rep As
Saudi, Bahrain
& UAE
Pull Theirs
From Qatar,
Belgium II
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
9 -- When US
President
Barack Obama
receives the
credential of
Qatari
Ambassador
Mohammed Jaham
al-Kuwari on
March 10,
it comes as
Saudi Arabia,
Bahrain and
the United
Arab Emirates
have
pulled their
own
ambassadors
from Qatar.
At
the UN, Inner
City Press
asked if
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon had
any comment on
this split
within the
Gulf
Cooperation
Council, which
Ban has
praised for
its work on
Yemen.
The UN's
answer was no.
(Afterward
it was
explained to
Inner City
Press, not by
the UN, that
Oman and
Kuwait did not
withdrew, the
latter because
chairing the
GCC and the
former in
order to "be
independent").
But
Syria, during
the UN's
"Children and
Armed
Conflict"
debate
on March 7,
noted the
split, saying
in essence
that Qatar is
even too
extreme in its
foreign
policy, and
too meddling,
for its own
similar
neighbors.
Mohammed
Jaham
al-Kuwari was
previously
Qatar's
ambassador to
France - can
you
say, Sarkozy?
- and was
named to the
post in the US
in December
2013.
More
than two
months later
comes the
credentials
ceremony, on
the
same same as
the new
ambassadors of
Tunisia
(Mhamed Ezzine
Chelaifa),
India
(Subrahmanyam
Jaishankar),
Pakistan
(Jalil Abbas
Jilani), Papua
New Guinea
(Rupa Abraham
Mulina) and
Belgium's
Johan Verbeke,
whose
short strange
stint for the
UN in Lebanon
(and then
Georgia) Inner
City Press
covered.
On
July 24, 2008
Inner City
Press asked
the UN's then
spokesperson
Michele Montas
why Verbeke
had not
meaningfully
deployed to
Lebanon.
Ms. Montas
responded that
"I can simply
tell you that
Mr.
Verbeke had to
go back home
for personal
reasons,
family
reasons, and
that's why he
was not in
Lebanon."
Inner
City Press was
told by
well-placed
Beirut sources
that Mr.
Verbeke
faced threats
to his safety,
to such an
extent that
rather than
rely
on UN
Security, he
approached the
Lebanese
government and
even the
Hariri family.
Neither could
offer
assurances. He
stayed for a
time
in the Moven
Pick hotel,
Inner City
Press is told
and can now
report,
given his
transfer to
Georgia. But
ultimately he
left Lebanon
due to
lack of
security.
So
at the August
1, 2008 UN
noon briefing,
Inner City
Press asked UN
spokesperson
Montas why
Verbeke was
leaving,
personal or
safety? From
the transcript
Inner
City Press: "I
didn't know
that there was
announcement
today of
Mr. Verbeke.
Before I had
asked, and you
had said there
was some
personal
issue. I don't
want to get
into any
personal
issue, but I
do want to ask
you, I had
heard that
there were
some security
concerns. I
know that you
also don't
like to talk
about them.
Specific, not
to just the
mission in
general, but
to Mr. Verbeke
himself.
Either threats
or that he'd
sought
protection
from either
the Lebanese
Government or
the Hariris,
various
things. Does
this
transfer, what
is, how does
it relate to
whatever the
personal issue
was, which I
don't want to
know what it
was? But is it
because of a
personal issue
or is because
of a safety
issue? What's
the basis of
the transfer?"
Ms.
Montas said,
"I am not
aware of the
details." This
UN
Secretariat
stonewalls and
becomes more
marginal by
the day.
From
the UN to DC -
that's where
the action on
Ukraine is
heading. Watch
this site.
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