At
OSCE Debate,
Syria Leads to
Absences &
Mentions, Ban
Panned
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
News Muse
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 9 --
Thursday's
Security
Council debate
on the
Organization
for Security
and
Co-operation
in Europe was
as
interesting,
if it was, for
who was not
there as for
who was.
Of the
Council's
Permanent Five
members,
Vitaly Churkin
of Russia was
the
only Permanent
Representative
present. He
said that
"some frozen
conflicts" are
no longer
frozen -- i.e.
Abkhazia and
South
Ossetia. But
where were the
other
Permanent
Representatives?
One
whispered to
Inner City
Press:
"Syria."
Even
though the
Council debate
was on OSCE -
the E is for
Europe - Syria
was brought
up, by
Portugal and
then by Eamon
Gilmore,
the OSCE
chairman,
taking off
that hat
and speaking
and Ireland's
foreign
minister.
Inner City
Press waited
afterward to
ask him about
Lithuania's
block on
Serbia as
chair in
2014, but he'd
headed
straight to
meet with Ban
Ki-moon.
Ban's
hastily
announced idea
of a joint UN
- Arab League
envoy and/or
mission to
Syria was not
kindly
reviewed. In
one major
country's
mission to the
UN, Ban's
stakeout was
watched on UN
TV amid
groans. "God,
he's
terrible," a
diplomat there
said,
suggesting a
"social
media
compaign"
using the
hashtag
#FireBan. You
heard it here
first.
(c) UN Photo
Just another
Saturday in
the UNSC:
Thursday, PRs
not shown
Still
the OSCE
debate had its
moments, for
example when
Azerbaijan got
to talk about
Nagorno
Karabakh. Only
the 15 Council
members could
speak, so
Moldova
was not heard
from for
example, nor
Kygyzstan
which US
deputy
Rosemary
DiCarlo
brought up.
The
action, as
they say, was
elsewhere. And
it concerned
Syria. Watch
this site.
, 
