Amid
France's Slow
2-Step on
Mali, Churkin
Says "Very
Close"
on Turkey
Draft
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 4 -- Mali was
finally
supposed to be
addressed by
the UN
Security
Council on
Thursday,
after requests
from the
government and
a meeting
of the
Council's
Permanent Five
members on
October 2.
But word from
inside
Thursday's
closed door
consultations
-- even Cote
d'Ivoire
Permanent
Representative
Bamba,
representing
ECOWAS, was
not allowed
inside -- was
that France
would only be
putting
forward a
draft
resolution in
a day or two,
and NOT for
any
deployment.
"They're
proposing
a two-step
process," a
Council source
told Inner
City
Press. This
despite the
professed
sense of
urgency from
Paris.
Outside
the
Security
Council the
interest was
almost
entirely about
a mere
press
statement on
"Turkey and
the shell."
On his way in,
French
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud
was asked
about the
draft Turkey
draft
statement,
says, it's not
me you have to
ask, it's
one country.
One wondered,
what about
China?
Later
when Vitaly
Churkin of
Russia, the
country
referred to by
Araud,
walked in he
was asked is
asked if he
was satisfied
with the draft
Turkey
statement.
"I'm never
satisfied," he
said, before
adding more
seriously, "I
think we
should have a
text."
Later mid-Mali
he said, "Very
close."
Not
on Mali.
Watch this
site.
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