At
UN, Syria
Stasis Not
"Bamboozle,"
Sahel
Boondoggle,
Libya
Unfreeze,
Ashraf to
Base?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 16
-- As the UN
Security
Council met
Friday morning
about Camp
Ashraf in Iraq
and a
surprisingly
large UN
entourage
traipsing
through the
Sahel, the hot
topic just
outside the
Council was
Syria.
The draft
resolution
Russia
introduced on
Thursday -- click here to
view, as
scanned and
re-uploaded by
Inner City
Press in .pdf
format -- is,
Russian
Permanent
Representative
Vitaly Churkin
told the
Press, "still
being
absorbed" by
Council
members.
Since
on Thursday he
told Inner
City Press
they had "yet
to digest" the
draft, to some
this seemed
like progress.
This
was quickly
disputed by a
European
Permanent
Representative,
who questioned
whether Russia
is "serious on
Syria." In
response,
South African
Permanent
Representative
Baso Sangqu
told Inner
City Press he
thinks Russia
IS serious,
but is moving
methodically
and not
"bamboozling"
other Council
members.
One
wag, and not
Sangqu, said
this could be
contrasted to
the pushing
into blue and
for a vote of
the Council's
Eritrea
sanctions
resolution,
click here for
that).
Churkin
said "maybe
Monday" for
the next set
of
consultations,
probably at
the experts
levels. The US
has said it is
ready to work
with Russia,
but has
changes. One
well places
Permanent
Representative
predicted "two
or three
weeks." We'll
see.
While
the lame duck
chief of the
UN Department
of Political
Affairs Lynn
Pascoe spoke
behind closed
doors to the
Council about
Camp Ashraf
and the joint
mission to the
Sahel, he did
not speak to
the press
afterward. One
exiting
diplomat who
asks not to be
quoted by name
snarked "We've
been to the
Sahel and
back."
UK
Permanent
Representative
Mark Lyall
Grant stopped
and described
to Inner City
Press a
mission
consisting of
DPA, the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations,
CTED, the
African Union;
he said the UK
had asked that
the
forthcoming
report focus
on
proliferation,
terrorism and
migration.
The
representative
of one of the
countries
joining the
Council in
January told
Inner City
Press that
added to that
list should be
drugs and the
Taureg of
Mali.
One wag called
the venture,
"Fowler II," a
reference to
the UN's
stealth envoy
to Niger whose
mandate only
became known,
or created,
after he was
kidnapped.
He recently
wrote a book
about his
captivity and
one hopes to
hear him at
the UN.
(c) UN Photo
Churkin,
and Sangqu who
says Russia's
not
bamboozling,
draft reso here
On
Camp Ashraf,
while most
members only
said that UN envoy
Martin Kobler
is trying to
convince the
Iraqi
authorities to
extend their
year-end
deadline to
close the
camp, two told
Inner City
Press that he
is trying to
move camp
residents to
an ex-US base,
"near the
airport... for
processing."
But would Camp
Ashraf
residents
agree? Watch
this site.
Footnote:
there
is a proposal
pending in the
Council on
Libya to
unfreeze all
Central Bank
assets by 5
pm; "if no one
breaks
silence," a
Permanent
Representative
told Inner
City Press,
"it will be
done." And
whither (or
wither) the
Libya
Sanctions
Committee?
, 
