Shut-Down
US
Gov Compared
to Lebanon,
Feltman's DPA
Pitches
Maldives
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 4 --
During this
week's
shutdown (or
slim-down) of
the US
government,
analogies to
various other
countries and
failed
states have
been made.
Now
former US
State
Department
official
Jeffrey
Feltman, whom
Inner City
Press has
covered this
week in
meetings with
Iran's Hassan
Rouhani
and Lebanon's
caretaker
prime minister
Najib Mikati,
has brought
the
analogy home.
Feltman is quoted
as texting
Lebanese
Parliament
Speaker
Nabih Berri
that he moved
on from the US
government
when it became
too much
like...
Lebanon.
At
the UN,
Feltman's
Department of
Political
Affairs is
sometimes kept
from the
biggest ticket
items by the
big-footing of
the Permanent
Five members
of the
Security
Council, but
it is active
on other
issues.
When on
October 2,
just before
the Security
Council's
Great
Lakes trip
which Inner
City Press has so far
covered here
and here
took off, DPA
at its own
request
briefed the
Security
Council about
the
Constitutional
crisis in the
Maldives.
While
the UK said
that its
Commonwealth
has already
expressed
concern at
delay in
second round
of
Presidential
elections, it
should be
noted
that this Commonwealth
still plans to
go to Sri
Lanka in
November for
its Heads of
Government
Meeting.
Are
the UK's
concerns
consistent?
Are Ban
Ki-moon's and
Feltman's
DPA's?
Under Ban
Ki-moon, did
DPA ever ask
for a Security
Council
meeting?
Or was it only
the British
chief of
Humanitarian
Affairs John
Holmes?
And what did
that come to?
And where is
Ban Ki-moon's
report on the
UN's inaction
in 2009? Watch
this site.
, 
