At
UN,
Outgoing
Assembly Prez
Denies He
Served Qatar,
Won't Disclose
Funding
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 14
-- When
Qatar's Nassir
Abdulaziz
Al-Nasser came
to do his
final UN press
conference as
President of
the General
Assembly
(PGA), he said
he could not
speak for
Qatar.
Inner
City Press
asked him
about Qatar's
funding of his
year as PGA:
how
much did Qatar
pay, and how
closely
aligned was
what he did as
PGA
with Qatar's
foreign
policy? Video
here, from
Minute 33:50.
Nassir
Abdulaziz
Al-Nasser,
after a
disarming "I
like your
questions,"
denied there
was a
connection. He
said, "I
cannot carry
hidden agenda,
I cannot
decide for
member
states."
While that
might be true
on some
matters,
Nassir
Abdulaziz
Al-Nasser
issued
statements
without any
vote of the
membership,
traveled and
gave speeches
seemingly on
behalf of the
GA, on Qatar's
priority
issues.
Contrary
to
UN officials
who calls for
a cessation of
violence by
all sides in
Syria, Nassir
Abdulaziz
Al-Nasser on
Friday said it
all depends on
the
authorities
stopping.
Under his
watch, UN
Television cut
off just
as Syria's
Permanent
Representative
Bashar
Ja'afari began
to speak.
To
be fair, when
Nicaragua's
Miguel
d'Escoto
Brockmann was
PGA, he flew
to Honduras
about the coup
d'etat against
Zalaya and
pushed a Grupo
ALBA
agenda.
Nicaragua did
not provide
the funds for
all this work
so
d'Escoto
Brockmann was
reduced to
raising funds
from
individuals,
none of it
disclosed.
Speaking
of
flying, UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon in the
past year has
accepted, and
disclosed only
after
questioning by
Inner City
Press,
free air
travel from
Qatar.
Would he
accept such
freebies from
all UN
member states?
Could all
member states
afford to make
the offer --
or
to be PGA?
Inner
City Press
asked Nassir
Abdulaziz
Al-Nasser if
he thought, to
be
equitable to
poorer
countries like
Nepal which he
and Qatar beat
out
for Presidency
of the GA's
66th session,
PGA funds in
the future
should just
come out of
the UN budget.
Nassir
Abdulaziz
Al-Nasser
seemed to
agree, saying
he has urged
the Fifth
(Budget)
Committee and
Advisory
Committee on
Administrative
and
Budgetary
Matters to
provide a
sufficient PGA
budget.
But when asked
on Friday he
did not
disclose how
much Qatar
provided him;
Inner City
Press has
previously
asked his
office in
writing
without this
number
being
disclosed.
Such
disclosure
would be a
first
baby-step for
UN reform ---
click
here
for Inner City
Press coverage
of the budget
of the
incoming PGA
Vuk
Jeremic of
Serbia,
characterized
by Nassir
Abdulaziz
Al-Nasser as
"full of
ambition."
Watch this
site.
, 
