As
UK
Spying from
Cyprus Touted
by FSA, Last
SC
Resolution
Recalled
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 19 --
With the Free
Syrian Army
bragging it
gets
surveillance
information
from the UK
base on
Cyprus, it's
worth
noting that a
month ago
today the UK
faces
surprising
opposition to
its draft
Security
Council
resolution on
Cyprus, on the
same day the
Council
resolution on
Syria that it
favor was shot
down by double
veto.
The
two
resolutions
were both on
the Council's
agenda that
Thursday
morning, but
nearly all
focus was on
Syria.
Security
Council
sources
have told
Inner City
Press that
beyond the two
abstentions on
Cyprus,
from
Azerbaijan and
Pakistan,
there was more
extensive
opposition in
the Council to
the UK draft,
until the UK
further
amended it
just
before the
vote.
Some
wonder about
the process by
which certain
countries are
"given
the pen" to
lead Council
drafting on
resolutions.
Often, these
are former
colonial
relations, for
example in the
case of France
and
Cote d'Ivoire.
On
Cyprus, the UK
maintains the
so-called
British
Sovereign Base
Area of
Dhekelia.
There, at
Ayios
Nikolaos, the
UK's Joint
Service Signal
Unit maintains
a listening
stations said
to be part of
ECHELON.
After
the July
10 Security
Council
consultations
on Cyprus,
Inner City
Press asked UN
envoy Lisa
Buttenheim
about
announced
plans for up
to
200,000
refugees from
Syria. Of the
Syria refugee
plans she said
"I
have not heard
that myself."
She
said Cyprus is
the "primary
safe haven"
for nine
countries,
noting that
she is the
UN's
"designated
official" and
worked for
example on the
evacuation of
UN families
from Egypt in
February 2011.
But
Cyprus' former
UN ambassador
Andreas
Mavroyiannis
told numerous
media
in Nicosia,
"We do not
know what will
happen in
Syria, but in
our planning
we have
estimated up
to 200,000
refugees could
arrive...
It will be a
very big
strain on us
if it happens,
so we will
need
help for
sure."
Cynics
say this could
be a play for
loans not only
from Russia --
note that
as Inner City
Press reported
last week
Cyprus
abstained from
the
General
Assembly
resolution on
the rights of
Georgian IDPs
to return
to Abkhazia
and South
Ossentia --
but also from
the IMF.
Between
Russia
and the UK?
We're
listening.
Watch this
site.
, 
