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On Gaza at UN, Western Placeholder Statement
Competes with Libyan Resolution, PRST Put Online Here
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News
Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
January 7, updated -- With Gaza smoldering
from 12 days of bombardment, the UN Security Council's meeting resumed
on
Wednesday morning. Libya late
Tuesday said it would be calling for a vote for
its draft resolution. But Western members of the Council were
promoting the
idea of a non-binding Presidential Statement, to give more time to what
can be
called the Egypto - Sarkozy proposal, announced Tuesday in Cairo.
Inner City
Press obtained a copy of the draft Presidential Statement, and in the
run-up to
the Council's 3 pm consultations on the text is putting it online here. It
"welcomes the French - Egyptian plan" and says that the Council
"will take comprehensive action as Egyptian and other international
initiatives will materialize."
The mere
place-holder statement is seen by many as inadequate in response to the
level
of death and destruction being visited on Gaza.
France's Kouchner with Israel's Ambassador, ceasefire resolution
disappeared
Wednesday afternoon, ministers
Miliband and Kouchner of the UK and France strutted in front of the
Council,
while US Ambassador Khalilzad was with Condi Rice in the UN's basement,
meeting
Arab ministers. UN Envoy Robert Serry, defender of Egypt among others,
begged
out of a press conference to attend a Ban Ki-moon luncheon with other
ministers. Serry is slated to return to the region Wednesday night,
with Ban
Ki-moon to follow next week. It was a struggle to be or be seen as
diplomatically
relevant. The Council's consultations loomed -- watch this site for
updates.
Update of 3:36 pm
-- Condi Rice has passed through
the stakeout, making a statement but taking questions on her way to
meet Ban
Ki-moon. As she leaves a reporter shouts, "Why are you opposing a
resolution?" A cameraman answers, "A resolution is not a
solution." Another jokes, "to pollution." The
media talk is why Associated Press had no
one at the Sarkozy's Egypt meeting, and had to follow-up hours late
with a
story from the AP. Reuters and AFP are happy about that. Competition
everywhere. But who had the Presidential Statement first?
Update of 3:49 pm
-- an hour after Inner City Press
got and uploaded it, a Western Council member's spokesman emerges to
hand out
the draft statement. "The French - Egyptian plan" has been changed to
"the Egyptian iniative and the French mediation." Guess who tried to
put the word France first....
Update of 5:29 pm
-- France's Ripert emerged to say
that there is no unanimity on either their draft Presidential Statement
or
Libya's draft resolution. "See you tomorrow," he said. It emerged
that the Arab Group is meeting at 6 pm to decide how to proceed. Inner
City
Press asked Egypt's Ambassador to explain the Presidential Statement's
turn of
phrase, "the Egyptian initiative and the French mediation." What is
France's role? I can only speak for Egypt, he said, adding that even he
was
unclear on France's role.
Ripert, of
course, left the stakeout microphone
without taking any questions. He then summoned an unwieldy press scrum
off-camera. Few could hear him. French diplomacy at its best, one wag
quipped.
Later a spokesman for the Egyptian foreign ministry said that one of
the
options is for the Arab minister to leave New York with no text at all.
The
Security Council has such a bad reputation in our region, he said, it
is easy
to blame it for anything.
Update of 7:43 pm
-- Condi Rice, David Miliband and
Bernard Kouchner emerged from Conference Room 7 in the UN's basement
and paused
briefly at the microphone the UN had belatedly set up. They are staying
in New
York to keep working, beginning with another meeting in the basement at
10 am
on Thursday. Later the UK mission pitched an on the record quote from
Miliband:
the world needs to hear the unified voice of the Security Council. Amre
Moussa
came out later and said, there is work to do. An Arab Group Ambassador
told the
Press to expect voting -- that is, on a resolution -- at noon on
Thursday.
Others demurred, predicting a stronger Presidential Statement than the
French
draft, followed by two days of waiting on the Egyptian initative. To be
continued.
Click here
for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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