As
Lebanon Heads
UNSC, Salam
Riffs on
Palestine,
Doesn't
Defer to NATO
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 2 --
With the UN
Security
Council
presidency
being
taken over by
Lebanese
Permanent
Representative
Nawaf Salam
for
September, the
month of the
General Debate
and when
Palestine
might
ask the
Council to
join the UN,
many of
wondered if
Lebanon's
complex
politics might
impact the
Council's
plumbing, if
not its
ultimate
decisions.
Lebanon,
for
example,
blocked the
first proposed
Press
Statement on
Syria, then
disassociated
itself from
the
Presidential
Statement
adopted on
August 3.
While
the
two
dueling Syria
resolutions
now pending in
the Council
may pose a
problem for
Salam -- on
Friday he said
his "good
offices"
to mediate
haven't been
requested --
an issue he
clearly feels
passionate
about is
Palestine.
During
his press
conference on
Friday, his
longest answer
concerned the
questions of
Palestinian
statehood. He
recalled that
Palestine
declared
itself a
state in 1988.
He cited the
1933
Montevideo
Convention and
said that
Palestine has
all the
attributes of
a state.
On
the question
of
undefined
borders, he
compared it
with South
Sudan, which
is still in
a dispute with
Khartoum for
Abyei,
Southern
Kordofan and
Blue Nile
States.
Palestine
is not,
however,
listed on the
Council's
program of
work for
September,
even
in the
footnotes.
Inner City
Press asked
Salam about
Kordofan and
Blue Nile. He
said they
could be
addressed at
the September
8
consultations
on Sudan and
South Sudan,
and said he
would come
speak
to the press
after those
consultations.
On
Libya, Inner
City Press
asked Salam
about a
statement by
French
president
Nicolas
Sarkozy on
September 1,
that the
so-called
"Group of
Friends of
Libya" had
decided that
NATO can keep
bombing.
The
same is
implied in the
UN
Secretariat's
Libya plan
written by Ian
Martin,
which Inner
City Press
exclusively
obtained and
published.
Inner City
Press asked
Salam, but
isn't that the
Security
Council's
decision?
Salam
said that
yes, the
Council can
consider and
decide on
NATO's
mission, at
its
Libya
consultations
scheduled for
September 26.
That seems
late, but
at least Salam
said it's not
just up to
NATO.
Salam
& his
political
coordinator
with then PGA
Treki, of whom
we'll have
more soon
Salam
is an
intellectual,
having for
example edited
and written a
chapter in the
2003 book
"Lebanon in
Limbo." His
review copy
inscription
says, "Best
wishes from a
region (and
not only my
country) in
limbo."
We will be
reviewing the
book during
his month;
we'll
see where he
comes out
between the
mere three
media
stakeouts held
in
May by French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud,
and the eight
full blown
stakeouts
conducted by
Hardeep Singh
Puri of India
in August.
Watch
this site.
* * *
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