Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the United Nations to Wall Street to the Inner City

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, October 25 -- A week after Saudi Arabia said to would not accept the UN Security Council seat it won without competition on October 17, the country has still not written to either UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon or President of the General Assembly John Ashe to formalize its withdrawal.

While some say this is either incompetence or indecision, others say the Saudis are crazy like a fox. Sources tell Inner City Press that the Arab Group at the UN met on Friday to professionalize what was sent out last Saturday: a request for Saudi Arabia to reverse itself and take the Council seat.

This time, the sources tell Inner City Press, the Arab Group statement will actually be sent by its head for October, Bahrain. And they also exclusively tell Inner City Press that an attempt is being made not to openly discuss the countries ready to step into Saudi Arabia's place.

Last week, from Arab Group sources, Inner City Press reported the next in line to be Kuwait. (For that and longer form analysis, click here for Beacon Reader.)

  Kuwait remains the preference of many in the Arab Group, but members exclusively told Inner City Press on Friday night that "the US prefers Jordan, to raise the profile of the Syria dossier in the Security Council. What the US wants, it will get."

One jokes, "If the US could just un-do Obama's phone call to Rouhini."

Obama, meanwhile, was in New York on Friday night, at a fundraiser on Fifth Avenue where couples paid over $32,000 to hear about a school in Brooklyn they could easily have visited themselves.

US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, to her credit, met with UN rapporteur on Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana, including about the Muslim Rohingya. That is an issue that Saudi Arabia and the OIC tried to act on. But so did Iran. Watch this site.