As
Iran Sanctions Season Start in NY, German Speaks of Text, China of
Diplomacy
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April 8 -- U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, emerging from a
meeting Wednesday afternoon on Iran nuclear sanctions, smiled and
said the process would continue "here and in capitals" for
the "next days and weeks."
The Deputy Representative of
Germany, which joins the UN Security Council's Permanent Five members
in negotiating the Iran resolutions then presented to the Council's
non-Permanent or Transient Ten, said that there is a text. This sent
reporters into a frenzy: who would get it first?
The
day previous, a
Permanent Five ambassador told Inner City Press that "of
course," if Iran showed flexibility on the Tehran Research
Reactor and proposal to out-ship uranium for enrichment in Russia and
then France, the sanctions process would stop in its tracks.
That is
a "confident building measure," according to the
ambassador, the volume no longer providing the assurance it would
have. Iran now has more uranium: 800 kilos more, the ambassador said.
Who would be
sanctioned, by a resolution that could pass? Elements of the
Revolutionary Guard, it seems clear. The energy sector, probably not.
Insurance firms? It depends.
Some
have
speculated that the P5 (or at least P3) and Germany will try to get a
resolution passed in April, to avoid running into May when Lebanon
with its mixed government will take over Presidency of the Security
Council. Others have wondered about the impact, if any, of the
upcoming UK elections. There is a lot in play.
US Hillary Clinton speaks to Press on Iran,
Sept 2009, outside new UNSC
The
UN press corps
set up shop outside the skyscraper housing the French and UK
Missions. On his way in, China's Ambassador Li Baodong said he would
speak when it was over. By then it was a mob scene, the press corps
hungry for any scrap of news.
One TV
reporter thrust his yellow
microphone at Ambassador Rice, drawing a pause and then a smile. The
German spoke just before getting into his waiting car. Li Baodong
did not disappoint, calling the process two track with a "focus
on diplomacy." One wondered: with Iran?
* * *
In
Congo Crunch Time, US Rice and Others Cancel Visit, Iran Prioritized,
Post-Doss
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April 7 -- With new violence starting up and being
discovered throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the 15
countries on the UN Security Council arranged to travel to the DRC
starting April 13. One goal is to negotiate with Congolese President
Joseph Kabila, who has asked for the UN Peacekeeping mission MONUC to
begin to pack up and leave.
While
Security
Council members, particularly the United States, say that the issues
in the Congo -- systematic rape of women as a weapon of war,
exploitation of conflict minerals by rebels and rogue Congolese Army
units -- are of much concern to them, on April 7 it emerged that only
half of the Council member states are sending their Permanent
Representative or lead Ambassador on the trip.
US
Permanent
Representative Susan Rice, another Council Ambassador complained to
Inner City Press on Wednesday, has dropped her initial plan to travel
to the Congo, and will stay in New York for the beginnings of
negotiations on a resolution to impose more sanctions on Iran.
"She
wants
credit for cracking down on Iran," a source said,
analogizing her calculus to that of her predecessors Madeleine
Albright and Richard Holbrooke when they wanted promotions from US
Ambassador to Secretary of State.
Susan Rice, Secretary of State, UN
meeting on women, Congo discussed, visit not shown
The
UN's top envoy
to the Congo Alan Doss, already the subject of a nepotism
investigation by the UN for urging the UN Development Program to show
him "leeway" and give his daughter a job, is said to
definitely
be out in June.
To
replace Doss
several French names are being circulated, among them former UN
Peacekeeping chief Jean Marie Guehenno and even former French
Permanent Representative Jean Maurice Ripert, who while titularly
employed as envoy on development to Pakistan is said to be in an
office in the UN's nearly empty headquarters tower.
There is also
an
American, the former U.S. Ambassador to Kinshasa, and current UN
envoy to Cote d'Ivoire Choi, both of whom speak French.
While
the UN and
its Security Council may show the Congo this idiomatic respect,
sending lower level representatives on the upcoming trip at this time
of crossroads is a bad sign. Watch this site.
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