As
Mikati Meets
Ban, Feltman
Not Ladsous or
Kane There,
&
IPI
Roed-Larsen
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 3,
updated -- On
very little
notice, five
minutes'
notice to
the Press, UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon met
Thursday
afternoon
with Lebanon's
caretaker
prime minister
Najib Mikati.
It
was after 3:30
pm when Ban's
spokesperson's
office
squawked the
4:15
meeting. One
has to show up
for security
screen at
least 30
minutes
in advance, so
only two
journalists
went up: a
wire service
photographer
and Inner City
Press.
In
the waiting
room there
were big bags
of potato
chips, waiting
for a
party. Thirty
eight stories
below UN
Security
officers were
taking
down the flags
for the day:
Pakistan,
Palau, Panama.
Inner City
Press tweeted
photo here.
Then the door
to
the meeting
room opened.
Mikati,
tall
like say Paul
Volcker,
stooped to
sign Ban's
book. He was
accompanied by
Lebanese
Permanent
Representative
and author
Nawaf
Salam: it was
a two person
delegation.
Inner City
Press tweeted
photo
here.
The
UN on the
other hand, or
side of the
table, had
Edmond Mulet
for UN
Peacekeeping
(instead of Herve Ladsous), Valerie Amos on
aid, former
US official
Jeffrey
Feltman on
politics, and
part time UN
envoy Terje
Roed-Larsen,
also the head
of the
International
Peace
Institute
which, among
other things,
opened an
office in
Bahrain.
Tweeted
photos here
and here.
Angela
Kane of UN
Disarmament,
who attended
yesterday's UN
meeting with
Iranian
foreign
minister Zarif,
was not
present.
Mikati
has given his
"personal
assurance" no
chemical
weapons
entered
Lebanon. At
the day's noon
briefing,
Ban's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
declined to
answer Inner
City Press'
question about
why the UN
team under Ake
Sellstrom had
not gone to
Khan al Assal,
saying it was
in the
transcript.
But Inner City
Press did not
find it
there.
The
more difficult
they try to
make things to
find (out),
the
more effort is
re-doubled.
Watch this
site.
Update:
after
publication of
the above,
Ban's
Spokesperson's
Office sent
this:
Subject:
Your
question at
the Noon
Briefing
From: UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not
Reply [at]
un.org
Date: Thu, Oct
3, 2013 at
4:58 PM
To:
Matthew.Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
In
reference to
your question
at the
[October 3]
Noon Briefing,
the
Spokesperson
said the
following at
the Noon
briefing on 30
September
2013:
Question:
Thank you,
Martin. Just
had a quick
question about
Dr.
Sellström’s
mission: Does
that mean he
won’t go back
to Syria now,
now that he
is finalizing
the report and
they didn’t go
to Khan
al-Assal in
the
end?
Spokesperson:
They are now
heading out of
Syria with the
aim of
finalizing
their
report. And I
will be able
to provide
details on
where they
have
been, but not
right at this
moment. They
have not
visited Khan
al-Assal to my
knowledge. But
that does not
mean that they
have not
been able to
collect a
large body of
information,
which they had
been
doing in any
case in the
lead up to
their initial
visit and then
to
their return.
And so, if I
have any more
details, I
will let you
know. And I
know also that
they will now
be seeking to
marshal all of
the
information
that they do
have with the
aim of putting
that report
together by
the end of
October, as we
just said.
We
publish this
is full, while
still asking:
why?
, 
