After
China Broke
Silence, UK
Hopes
for Syria
Statement
"This
Morning," GA
Friday
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 1 -- As
opposition
fighters
conduct a
"tactical
retreat" from
the Baba Amr
neighborhood
of Homs in
Syria, at the
UN in New York
China broke
silence on the
draft Security
Council
press
statement
calling for
Syria to let
UN
Humanitarian
chief
Valerie Amos
in.
Inner
City
Press asked
the Council's
president for
March, UK
Permanent
Representative
Mark Lyall
Grant, about
the status of
the draft
statement. One
country broke
silence, he
said, adding
with a smile
"a
big country,
lot of
people."
He
said
that there is
a bilateral
meeting
scheduled, and
he still hopes
to issue the
press
statement
"this
morning."
Another
Council
member, with
fewer people,
told Inner
City Press on
February 27
that
the drafters
shouldn't "try
to do with a
press
statement what
they couldn't
with a
resolution"
that got
vetoed.
This country,
as well as
China and
others, urge
that the press
statement call
for
cooperation
not only by
the Syrian
government,
but by all
parties. What
will that mean
in Baba Amr?
Meanwhile
Inner City
Press has
learned that
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
report to the
General
Assembly,
called for in
the February
16 GA
resolution on
Syria, will be
delivered
orally in the
GA on March 2
at 3 pm. Click
here for Inner
City Press'
story on Ban's
and Kofi
Annan's joint
press
encounter on
February 29,
and watch this
site.
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