On
Syria,
Ban Says
Invited Iran
in Hasty Press
Conference,
1st Q to
Censors
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 19 --
For the Syria
talks
beginning in
Montreux
January 22,
Iran has now
been invited,
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
announced in a
hastily thrown
together press
conference
held
Sunday evening
in an nearly
empty UN
building, on
barely an
hour's
notice.
Nevertheless,
Ban's
spokesperson
automatically
gave the first
question to
the
United
Nations
Correspondents
Association, a
partisan group
which for
example held a
faux "UN
briefing" for
Ahmad al Jarba
of the
Turkey-based
Syrian
Coalition.
Click here
for Inner City
Press story
on
that.
Ban
Ki-moon dodged
and did not
answer on the
weakness
of Jarba's
Coalition,
from which
over 40
members
decided not to
attend the
vote
approving
attended at
the talks in
Switzerland.
Nor until the
end of
this press
conference did
Ban mention
the inclusion
of women.
Has he
asked Jarba
about that?
Ban
said he spoke
with Iranian
foreign
minister Javad
Zarif, who
"committed to
play a
constructive
and positive
role." Ban
repeated this
line when
asked about
the litmus
test of
accepting that
Geneva II is
about Geneva I
which was
about
"establishing
a
transitional
governing body
with full
executive
powers" -- on
mutual
consent,
whatever that
means.
Ban
also announced
supplemental
invitations to
Montreux for,
among
others,
Australia,
Bahrain,
Belgium,
Greece,
Luxembourg,
Mexico, the
Netherlands
and, yes,
South Korea.
It
was at 4:21 pm
that the UN
sent out an
email that Ban
would appear
for a "brief
and important
statement" in
the UN at 5:30
pm.
When that time
arrived, the
so-called UNCA
chair (or
"Holy
Seat") on
which the UN
has affixed a
metal tag was
filled -- and
from that seat
a complaint
was made to
try to get
another
correspondent
moved.
UNCA's
president
Pamela Falk of
CBS was not
there; nor was
her first vice
president, who
nonetheless
was heard to
call into the
room. It is
time to end
the practice
of the UN
automatically
giving the
first question
to
UNCA - a group
of which
executive
committee
members tried
to get the
investigative
Press
thrown
out of
the UN
(and to get leaked
documents
removed from
Google's search
under a
specious DMCA
filing by
Reuters'
bureau chief)
and which has
not reformed
in any way
since
then.
The
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
additionally
asks why this
announcement
was made this
way. There is
more and more
staging at the
UN, faux
Q&A
and UNTV
footage put
out hoping it
will be used
as B roll. The
UN
should be more
transparent,
less of a
scam. We'll
have more on
this.
, 
