UN
"Irrelevant"
on Egypt,
Calls a
"Failure,"
African
Coup Verdict
Overruled
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 19,
updated -- On
the crisis in
Egypt, why is
the UN so
irrelevant? In
the Egyptian
presidency's
hour long
press
conference
on August 17,
the UN was
absent. In
the US State
Department
briefing
on August 19,
a question
about the UN
was answered
by referring
to
Secretary of
State John
Kerry's
telephone
calls.. with
the European
Union.
Inner
City Press has
interviewed a
range of
knowledgeable
sources on
this,
including
since being first to
report on
August 15 that
former US
official, now
head of the UN
Department of
Political
Affairs
Jeffrey
Feltman had
been arranging
a trip to
Egypt before the
killings of
August 14.
The
UN first on
the evening of
August 15,
after Inner
City Press'
exclusive
report, called
it a rumor,
then spoon-fed
confirmation
just
before the
August 16 noon
briefing to
Reuters, which
simply retyped
it without
adding
Feltman's
previous US
role or that his trip
was
planned before
the killings.
(The flow
goes the other
way too, as
noted.)
Now
Inner City
Press can
report the
following:
calls by the
UN
Secretariat of
Ban Ki-moon
and his deputy
Jan Eliasson
to current and
just-resigned
Egyptian
authorities
are described
by
knowledgeable
UN
sources as
failures,
garnering
responses that
"Egypt does
not
need the UN,
it has enough
expertise" and
that Morsi was
being
held for his
own
protection.
Within
Feltman's UN
Department of
Political
Affairs, Egypt
is not part of
the Middle
East but
rather of
Africa. And,
sources tell
Inner City
Press, the
African unit
of DPA viewed
the ouster of
Morsi as a
coup,
as the African
Union views
it. But they
were
overruled.
Now,
they ask, how
long will
Feltman really
be working on
his
pre-planned
trip to Egypt?
[Update:
Egyptian diplomats
tell Inner
City Press:
two days.] Who
will meet with
him? Will the
UN be
transparent?
Will they make
Feltman's schedule
at least as
public as
Ban's or
Eliasson's?
Some
who question
why even UN
High
Commissioner
on Human
Rights Navi
Pillay
has not been
more forceful
point, in the
OHCHR
bureaucracy
under her to
"a Coptic
Christian view
against the
Muslim
Brotherhood,
like,
look the other
way for now."
Is
this how the
UN system is
supposed to
work? Watch
this site.
, 
