On
Syria
"No
Breakthrough,"
Russian PR
Says, Security
Grills Press
as Rice Leave
P5 + Morocco
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 8 --
After nearly
three hours
meeting inside
the US
Mission to the
UN on a draft
resolution on
Syria, the
Permanent
Representatives
of Russia and
China emerged
together onto
First
Avenue. Inner
City Press
asked them to
characterize
the meeting.
"No
breakthrough,"
Russia's
Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin
said.
Inner
City Press
had been
waiting for an
hour outside
the heavily
fortified US
Mission. A
white shirted
security
officer had
said it was
not worth
it, "they are
across the
street... when
the P5 are
here there is
always a
Jaguar
outside."
They
moved a big
black four by
four around
the corner
onto 45th
Street,
presumably for
US
Ambassador
Susan Rice,
who earlier on
Thursday told
Inner City
Press, about
the World
Bank top job,
"C'mon, I've
got a great
job."
After
Churkin's
answer to
Inner City
Press,
another white
shirted
security
officer told
Inner City
Press not to
"run up and
ask questions,
we have a lot
of security
here."
Another
officer
demanded,
"what's in the
backpack, you
might
have a bomb in
there."
As
Inner City
Press answered
the officer's
questions, the
black four by
four was
loaded and
drove away. A
diversion or
stratagem
against press
coverage?
USUN
mission empty
before P5 let
out March 8,
2012 (c) MRLee
In
four days,
ministers
Lavrov, Hague,
Araud and
Hillary
Clinton
descend with
high
representatives
of China and
Gulf States on
the UN to
discuss the
Arab Spring.
The
idea behind
Thursday
meeting, a
Western
diplomat told
the Press, is
to keep the
negotiation
process going
hoping to
catch
lightning in a
bottle on
March 12. But
can they get a
report-back by
then from
envoy Kofi
Annan's trip,
which only
starts March
10?
A
Gulf country
diplomat told
Inner City
Press that the
draft is
"already weak
and getting
weaker." There
are moves
to strip out
any "further
measures," and
to switch the
sequence of
stopping
violence to
"in
conjunction."
Realistically,
it
seems unlikely
the Syrian
opposition
would ever
agree that
Assad's
forces had
pulled out.
So, the
argument goes,
a vacuum would
be
created and
the opposition
take over.
Car
speeds from
USUN on Marhc
8, 2012, abuse
not shown (c)
MRLee
Inner
City Press
stumbled on
the P5 Plus
Morocco
meeting while
returning from
a
briefing at
the Mexican
Mission about
the G20, and a
stakeout of
North Korean
nuclear
negotiators in
the Millennium
Hotel in the
same
building.
The
informative
Mexican G20
delegation,
about whom we
will be
writing
more, has not
met with
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon. But
Ban was
spotted on the
afternoon of
March 7 going
into the
Millennium
Hotel.
Inquiring
minds want to
know: what
for? Watch
this site.
, 
