At
UN
on Syria, 3
Serious
Brackets, Big
Rift on S-G
Report, Text
to Capitals
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 2 -- As
the UN
Security
Council broke
up Tuesday
night and
Western
spokesmen said
a text would
be sent to
capitals,
there were
widely
differing
read-out from
the Council's
various
factions.
The
Western
spokespeople
put a positive
spin on the
day's work,
saying that a
text was
nearly agreed
to but for a
few sticking
points. But a
well placed
source from
the bloc of
Brazil, India
and South
Africa, IBSA,
told Inner
City Press
that of
the text's
eight
paragraph
there are five
"brackets" not
agreed to,
three of them
serious.
Beyond how to
condemn
violence and
how not to
make
moral
equivalence
with violence
against
security
forces -- a
major US
issue --
another rift
emerged.
The
final
paragraph
would request
a report from
the Secretary
General in
seven
days. Some
want it to be
longer, some
don't want it
at all,
arguing
that Syria is
not the
Council's
agenda and
that if an S-G
report,
"Western
influenced,"
further
condemned
Assad the
Western
Council
members would
use it "like
in Libya."
Inner City
Press asked UK
Ambassador
Mark Lyall
Grant about
the issue of
S-G reports.
"That's one of
the unresolved
issues," he
acknowledged.
China's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Wang told
Inner City
Press that
even the
text was
difficult to
agree on, and
that format
had "not even
been
discussed" as
of 7 pm.
South
Africa's
Permanent
Representative
Baso Sangqu
told Inner
City Press his
country would
like to agree
to a PRST
(Presidential
Statement),
and that a way
could be
found, even
with Lebanon.
After
nearly all
Ambassadors
had left,
Russia's
Vitaly Churkin
did a
stakeout.
Inner City
Press asked
him about the
push to
include
regular
reporting to
the Council by
the S-G.
Churkin said
that the
Council can
get briefings
as needed. He
said some
members were
pushing too
far, regarding
Syria and
"civil war,"
as he called
it.
Amb. Maria
Viotti of
Brazil, with
Hardeep of
India and
Churkin:
Brazil points
now shown
A
source in the
consultations
said of
Lebanon's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative,
"She
says she wants
a text to send
back to
Beirut,"
calling this a
change from
Lebanon's
previously
block of any
kind of
statement.
"Maybe there's
been a change
in Beirut,"
the Council
source, from
another
continent,
told Inner
City Press.
We'll see.
, 
in