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At UN in Run-Up to Syria Meeting, Brazil Says Could Agree to Statement

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 -- With deaths in Syria mounting, on July 31 outgoing UN Security Council president Germany asked its successor for August, India, to convene an emergency for August 1 on Syria. At 9 am on Monday, a spokesman of the German Mission to the UN told the press that the request was granted, and the meeting would be at 5 pm.

  In front of the Security Council on Monday morning, Inner City Press asked Brazilian Permanent Representative Maria Viotti what Brazil expected from the 5 pm meeting. After meeting with the Indian presidency she said Brazil could agree to a Press Statement or Presidential Statement on Syria, but not a resolution.

  Inner City Press has exclusively reported that Brazil, India and South Africa say their deputy ministers will travel to Damascus soon -- "in the coming days," Viotti said Monday -- to "engage" with the Assad resolution. Western members of the Security Council have been dismissive of this trip.

  When France's Deputy Permanent Representative exited the Security Council after meeting with the Indian presidency, Inner City Press asked him if France had joined in Germany's request for the meeting -- "yes" was the answer -- and told him what Viotti had said.

"That's news to me," he said. So news it is. Watch this site.

Footnote: Given the position Lebanon is in, it remains more than possible that it would block any press or presidential statement of the Council, which requires unanimity. Or, Lebanon could "disassociate" itself. We'll see.

Update of 11:24 am -- the Portuguese, when the emerged, said that for a Presidential or Press Statement, Lebanon could be a problem. But they pointed to a precedent from the 1956 Suez crisis, a statement can be adopted without all members present. Watch this site.

* * *

India, Brazil & S. Africa Move Toward Joint Communique on Syria, European Members Grumble at UN

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 -- As the crackdown has intensified in Syria, the so-called IBSA countries -- India, Brazil and South Africa -- have been under increasing pressure to “do something about Assad.”

  France's UN Ambassador Gerard Araud, for example, wrote an opinion piece in the Brazilian press urging Brazil to support the long pending draft Security Council resolution on Syria circulated by the European members of the Council.

  UN sources have for some time been telling Inner City Press that IBSA has been moving toward taking action.

 Now on July 26 several European members complained to Inner City Press that the action the IBSA countries are moving toward is not through the Council but rather a communication, or demarche, directly to Syria.

  This new development is not unexpected. As the Council's two resolutions on Libya have been cited after the fact as authorizing not only airstrikes but even the parachuting of weapons into the Nafusa mountains by France, opposition to a Syria Council resolution has grown.

  But India, Brazil and South Africa, each for its own reasons, wants to take some action on Syria. Internally, each of the three government faces pressures from some groups to do more about human rights in Syria, and from others not to allow “another Libya.”

  As to Brazil, on a recent Council on Foreign Relations conference call Inner City Press asked, “what do you make of Brazil's position on Syria being portrayed as... obstructionist?”

  Former US Ambassador to Brazil Donna Hrinak responded that the

Brazilian congress certainly is playing more of a role. Itamaraty at one time had, you know, virtual monopoly on foreign policy making. Civil society is a lot more vibrant in Brazil in also speaking out on foreign policy. You could do quite well by looking at what players are active in U.S. foreign policy and seeing those same groups reflected in Brazil.”

   How would an op-ed by a French diplomat seeking to impact US foreign policy play out?


Brazil's PR Viotti, India's (3d from left), Araud behind Susan Rice in shades, IBSA letter not shown

  CFR's Latin America director Julia Sweig also replied:

with respect to Syria, there was a great deal of conflict with France over that, but there were a couple of resolutions, I believe, that passed in the Brazilian congress, which is becoming more and more active in weighing in on foreign policy, condemning 1973, that resolution [on Libya], and also a great deal of resistance on the Syria front that I believe Itamaraty is increasingly sensitive to, as our foreign-policy operatives are themselves when they conduct foreign policy. So in foreign policy, domestic politics and voices will impinge.”

Things are not so different in India and South Africa. So for the three to act together is not unexpected, despite the grumbling from European members of the Security Council. Watch this site.

Click for July 7, 11 BloggingHeads.tv re Sudan, Libya, Syria, flotilla

Click for Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate

Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate

Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate

Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56

Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza

Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate

Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger

Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards

Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics

and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.

* * *

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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