Angry
at
Press on Its
Position on
Palestine,
France "Witch
Hunt"
Defused by
Portugal
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 4 --
In the middle
of the
Security
Council's
closed
door meeting
on Palestine
on November,
Inner City
Press learned
and
published
that France
had just
announced
inside the
meeting that
it
would abstain
on Palestinian
UN membership.
Click here
for that
unchanged
story.
Minutes
after the
story was
uploaded at
4:16 pm,
inside the
Security
Council's
"private"
meeting French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
complained
about it,
multiple
sources tell
Inner City
Press.
Complaints
were
also made, not
for the first
time, by US
Ambassador
Susan Rice.
Araud
pointed the
finger at
perceived
"supporters of
Palestine" on
the
Council.
(While even
those not
supporting
Palestinian UN
membership all
say they
support
Palestine,
Araud was
focused
sources say on
at most eight,
and seemingly
fewer,
countries.)
November's
Council
president Jose
Filipe Moraes
Cabral of
Portugal
defused the
situation by
saying to
count him, and
Portugal,
among
Palestine's
supporters.
After
a change of
government and
foreign
minister,
Portugal is
less
supportive of
Palestine than
before, for
example
abstaining on
Palestinian
membership in
UNESCO.
Cabral
is a
proponent of
UNSC Working
Methods reform
and greater
openness, for
example
holding press
stakeouts on
both November
3 and November
4.
France's Araud,
by contrast,
did only three
stakeouts in
the entirety
of the last
month he was
Council
president,
May 2012. Click here
for that story,
and here
for more on
French Mission
anti-Press
moves.
(c)
UN Photo
Araud
& former
spokesman
point the
finger, new
communications
strategy not
shown
Some
say that if
Security
Council
members,
particularly
the Permanent
members
including
Western
members which
often speak
about press
freedom and
transparency,
were in fact
more open,
"real time"
reporting, for
one Permanent
Representative
congratulated
Inner City
Press on
Friday, would
not be viewed
as disruptive.
The following
morning on
November 4,
Araud stopped
on the stairs
outside the
Council and
said, with his
new spokesman
tape
recording,
that if
Palestine
wants a vote
in the Council
on its
application
for membership
it will need
to get a
Council member
to ask for a
vote.
Watch this
site.
, 
