By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
22 -- After
the UN's Host
Country
Committee met
on April 22
about the US
denying entry
to Iran's
nominee for UN
Ambassador,
the
Committee's
chair from
Cyprus told
the press that
several
members spoke
and the
committee
remains
"seized of the
matter."
Inner City
Press asked
him how the US
had justified
its act in
light of the
Host Country
Agreement. Ask
the Americans,
he said. But
they did not
speak at the
stakeout.
A
member coming
out of the
meeting, well
known to Inner
City Press,
told it that
many countries
had spoken in
favor of Iran,
as well as on
"the bank
issue" which
Inner City
Press first
covered, here:
JPMorgan Chase
is closing a
number of
countries'
accounts.
On this, the
Cypriot chair
told Inner
City Press to
expect a
solution soon.
Or a resolution?
On the
US's visa
denial, the UN
Secretariat
under Ban
Ki-moon has
remained
markedly
quiet, even as
the UN's own
agreement with
the US is
flaunted.
Previously,
the UN
opined that
blocking
access to
Yassar Arafat
violated the
agreement,
as Inner City
Press asked
out, how
doesn't this?
But Ban
doesn't want
to say it.
In
fact, the
meeting wasn't
even initially
listed in the
UN Media Alert
for April 22.
The Free
UN Coalition
for Access
questioned
why, given the
level of
interest.
At the day's
noon briefing,
Ban's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric said
there would be
a UNTV
stakeout in
front of the
meeting. (He
didn't answer,
for the second
day in a row,
why on Western
Sahara the
Polisario
Front has now
been banned
from speaking
on UNTV, while
for example
the Turkish
Cypriot leader
Eroglu spoke
on UNTV on
April 21).
Representing
the
US in the
April 22 Host
Country
Committee
meeting was
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Rosemary
DiCarlo
(Permanent
Representative
Samantha Power
was at a
Security
Council
retreat with
Ban Ki-moon.)
Inner
City Press has
asked
why the US
under the Host
Country
Agreement went
so far as to
do a court
filing
supporting
immunity for
Sri Lanka
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Shavendra
Silva,
whose army
unit was
portrayed
engaged in
2009 war
crimes in Ban
Ki-moon's own
report, but
now denies a
visa to
Aboutalebi,
describes as a
translator in
the 1979
hostage
taking.
Politics, of
course. But
we're still
waiting for an
actual answer.
Watch this
site.
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