Amid
Syria Envoy
Lull, Ban
"Desperate To
Be Relevant,"
So Wants New
Annan
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 13 --
With Kofi
Annan formally
ending work on
Syria
at the end of
the month, but
already hardly
speaking now,
who wants
there to be a
replacement
envoy?
The
Arab League
"postponed"
its August 12
meeting on the
topic.
At the UN on
August 13,
Inner City
Press
witnessed a
three-person
Syrian
delegation led
by Permanent
Representative
Bashar
Ja'afari
coming out of
a meeting
with, it is
understood,
top UN
political
official
Jeffrey
Feltman.
While
the UN
refused to
answer
Inner City
Press'
question on
August 10
about the Syrians'
meeting that
day with
Feltman,
other sources
tell Inner
City Press
that Monday's
topic is the
follow-on
political
mission that
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon wants
to see.
The
idea, these
sources say,
is that Ban is
desperate to
keep his hand
in
on Syria.
"Otherwise Ban
might end up
like that
Canadian
general," one
of them
exclusively
told Inner
City Press,
referring to
General Romeo
Dallaire who
after leaving
Rwanda was
haunted by it
years later.
Ban, the well
placed source
diagnosed to
Inner City
Press, "is
desparate to
be relevant"
on Syria.
It
was confirmed
to Inner City
Press what it
reported last
week, that
beyond Martti
Ahtisaari and
others, Gro
Harlem
Brundtland,
now 72,
and Sadako
Ogata were
considered,
along with
Javier Solana.
"But
who," the
source asked
rhetorically,
"would want
this job,
if they had
any future at
all?"
Here
is what Inner
City Press asked
Ban's Deputy
Spokesman on
Friday,
August 10:
Inner
City Press: I
was just in
the North Lawn
and I was told
that Mr.
Jeffrey
Feltman of DPA
[Department of
Political
Affairs] is
meeting…I
saw Bashar
Ja’afari go
in. I’m told
that the topic
is Mr.
Brahimi. So my
question to
you is:
because Martin
was willing to
say that there
are
consultations
with the
permanent
members of the
Security
Council about
such an
appointment,
is Syria and
its
permanent
representative,
will they be
conferred with
prior to an
announcement,
whoever the
name is?
Deputy
Spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey: I will
have to check
on that. I
don’t know
exactly who
the
consultation
list is
comprised of.
But
more than
three days
later, no
answer, and no
envoy. Watch
this site.
, 
