Lebanon
UN
SC Month Ends
With Felafel
&
Palestine, Of
Turks &
Jerks &
Giuliani
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 27
-- With three
days left in Lebanon's
presidency
of the UN
Security
Council,
Ambassador
Nawaf Salam
threw an end
of
presidency
bash in his
huge Madison
Avenue
apartment on
Tuesday
night.
One
longtime
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
marveled that
there was no
one burning
issue
of the
evening, but
rather
discussions of
Palestine,
Libya, the
Turkish fight
with UN
Security and
holding up the
rear Sudan, in
that
order.
The
floors were
lacquered red,
the walls wood
paneled and
the felafel
was hot. The
Permanent
Representatives
of China,
Portugal,
Germany, South
African,
Nigeria,
India, Bosnia,
Brazil and
more moved
through the
crowd, talking
sanctions
and GA
intrigue,
winding down
from the UN's
highest week.
Without
attributing
the sentiment
to anyone in
particular,
there seemed
to be
a consensus
that nothing
will move fast
on Palestine's
application
for full UN
membership.
The Ad Hoc
comment might
have to
report, but
the full
Council can
sit on it.
One
European
diplomat told
Inner City
Press it is
impossible
that any of
the four
EU members of
the Council
would vote
"yes" for
Palestine in
the Council.
The candidates
for the next
Council -
Romania and
Hungary,
Morocco and
Mauritania,
for example --
might now be
grilled
on their views
of Palestine.
Salam &
his
able
political
coordinator
with then PGA
Treki,
superceded
Otherwise
the
interest was
in the Turkish
UN fight --
most people
saying Ban
Ki-moon, who
did not
appear, should
never have
apologized so
quickly. Ban
officials
Patricia
O'Brien and
Kiyotaka
Akasaka were
in the
house, as well
as some from
Security
Council
Affairs. Ban's
scheduled
had him going
to Indonesia,
but that was
true of many
Ambassadors.
What
has to be
said of Nawaf
Salam is that
despite being
in a sense
awkward, he
was
and is
essentially
decent,
endeavoring to
answer
questions, in
three
languages,
under
constraints.
Like Bosnia,
Beirut's
moment to
moment
politics do
not make
voting easy.
By his heavy
loaded
bookshelves
Inner City
Press posited
what an absent
journalist had
said, that
Salam was a
Maoist. An
aide did not
disagree.
Another
joked,
Giuliani lives
across the
hall -- some
location for a
Maoist. But
Salam is an
intellectual,
as previously
noted, an
author and
editor of
books. More of
this is needed
at the UN.
Hats off. Shukran
-- with
three days
left. Watch
this site.
* * *
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
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.
, 
