After
Syria Report,
P3 Call on
Their Friends,
Dodge on ICC,
US Left Behind
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 16
-- The Syria
question and
answer
sessions at
the UN after
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
unveiled his
already-flashed
chemical
weapons report
were tellingly
one-sided, and
with a major
question
repeatedly
avoided.
Do
the US, France
and the UK
want to refer
Syria to the
International
Criminal Court
in the
Security
Council
resolution
they are
proposing?
And if so, why
didn't the US
negotiate for
that in its
Geneva deal
with Russia?
Ban
Ki-moon took
only three
questions: the
first went to
the host
of
Saudi-sponsored
Syria rebel
boss Ahmad al
Jarba, Pam
Falk of CBS,
2013 President
of UNCA.
Next was UNCA
board member Tim
Witcher of
Agence France
Presse,
who has
complained to
the UN about
the way
French UN
Peacekeeping
official Herve
Ladsous was
asked a
question by
Inner City
Press.
Samantha
Power
of the US took
two of the
same question
questions as
Ban,
combined with
a third who
pre-spun Ban's
report. The
question
arose:
is ICC
indicted
Sudanese
president Omar
al Bashir
coming to New
York
for the
General
Debate?
Power,
flexing her
"Problem from
Hell" muscles,
said it would
be
better for
Bashir to go
present
himself to the
ICC in The
Hague. But
Power and the
US Mission
said nothing
when UN
official
Ladsous met
with Bashir in
July. And
Power did not
answer the
question, does
the
US want an ICC
referral for
Syria?
UK
Ambassador
Mark Lyall
Grant to his
credit did
take the ICC
question,
although he
largely dodged
it. Inner City
Press asked if
the UK wants an
ICC referral,
and if the "Framework
Agreement"
between the US
and Russia
makes that less
likely. By the
UK transcript
- which called
the question
half inaudible
- Lyall Grant
responded:
Inner
City Press: Do
you think the
Framework
Agreement
makes it less
likely...
(inaudible)
PR Lyall Grant:
I don’t want
to go into
detail of what
is in the
resolution and
is not in the
resolution.
There will
need now to be
some days of
negotiation of
the text and I
hope that
those will
take place in
private and in
confidence.
France
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
took friendly
questions,
many in
French, and
did not on
camera take
Inner City
Press' ICC
question.
But Inner City
Press said the
question, "yes
or no," and
afterward the
Deputy's
colleague
approached
Inner City
Press to say
that yes,
France wants
the ICC in the
resolution.
The
spin wars
continue, more
and more open,
in Ban
Ki-moon's UN.
Watch
this site.
, 
