In
Syria Deal, UN
Reduced to
Recommendations,
UK &
France's
Yes Men
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 14
-- The deal on
Syria chemical
weapons
reached
by the US and
Russia
marginalizes
the UN and its
Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon,
who on
Friday was
bragging of
his own
"overwhelming"
report to come
out Monday.
What will that
report mean
now?
In
the agreement,
Ban's role is
only to
"submit
recommendations,"
and even then
"in
consultation
with the
OPCW."
But
also quickly
shown up as
having limited
relevance are
the US' two
partners in
the Permanent
Five members
of the
Security
Council,
France and the
UK.
France rushed
to draft and
promote a
resolution
last week that
is now not
only undercut
by the US, but
largely moot.
Will either
use their veto
for what they
say they
believe in?
Not if
the US says
not to. Hence
Monday's lunch
in Paris,
between John Kerry
and his
counterparts
William J.
Hague and "Fabulous"
Laurent
Fabius.
Speaking
of
spoon-fed,
last week
insider
journalists
were hyping up
the French
draft; several
even skipped
going to cover
the P5
meeting on
September 11
at the Russian
Mission on
67th Street,
in order to
stay
in the UN's
air
conditioning
and be
spoon-fed the
French
resolution
and quotes
about Ban's
"overwhelming"
report.
Reuters
ran
a story that
the meeting at
the Russian
mission
concerned the
French draft;
it
did not.
The breathless
stories about
how the UN
report will
"finger" Assad,
now just three
days later,
are
seen as
manipulative
leaking. The
timing was a
hint that the
game
was slipping
away from
France and the
UK and the
media they
feed.
Now
their game
will shift to
decrying
violations
right away,
openly
bemoaning as
some already
have the
limits of the
agreement,
that is,
that the US
did not
actually hit
Syria with
missiles. This
seems to
be the
position of
the Voice of
America, at
least at the
UN.
Maybe
it takes a
while for
marching
orders to
trickle down
from John
Kerry,
who serves of
VOA's
Broadcasting
Board of
Governor, to
the bureau at
the UN, the
land that time
forgot.
VOA helpfully
(or hopefully)
tweeted that
the US remains
prepared to
act, something
echoed by the Reuters
bureau chief
who spied
for the UN.
His Agence
France
Presse
counterpart,
also exposed
as a troll in
MediaBistro,
had nothing so
say -- kind of
like France.
Watch this
site.
, 
