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At UN, Iceland's Grants to Island States Are
Directed At Winning Security Council Seat
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
September 23 -- Iceland's prime
minister Geir H. Haarde announced $4.5 million in grants Tuesday at the
UN,
along with the Ambassadors of Grenada and Tonga. Inner City Press asked
if this
is connected to Iceland's
run for a seat on the Security Council, against
Turkey and Austria. (Click here
for author's debate on the topic.)
"I will not
deny" it, Haarde said, adding this will be long term aid, whether or
not
Iceland wins the election on October 17. The $4.5 Fund for the Island
Growth
Initiative runs for three years.
Inner City
Press asked the Permanent Representative of Tonga if her country will
be voting
for Iceland. She responded that she was attending the press conference
on
behalf of 12 Pacific Ocean small island developing states, which view
each
state's vote as a matter of sovereignty. Therefore she did not comment
on her
own country's view. Tonga, as we've
noted, recently sponsored a prayer meeting,
largely of U.S. evangelicals, in the basement of the UN.
Haarde, at left: no man is an island
Grenada's
Ambassador Angus Friday also said he came representing more than
Grenada, but
said "we encourage Iceland" to keep doing what it's doing. In
fairness, Turkey too has opened up its coffers.
"This is how it works here," Haarde to his credit
said. Turkey, for example, has given vehicles and even soccer balls.
Click here
for that.
Afterwards,
Inner City Press asked Haarde about a $355
million loan Iceland has recent
taken to tide it through the global financial meltdown. Who gave
the loans?
"It is a syndicated loan from European commercial banks," Haarde
said, adding "it has arrived." He said he had predicted that if this UN
press conference was anything like "at home," he would be asked about
Iceland's finances. And he was, albeit when no more questions were
allowed, off-camera. He's set to ring
the NASDAQ closing bell on Wednesday. Money coming in on the one
hand, and
going out on the other. And so it goes.
Watch this site, and this Sept. 18 (UN) debate.
Earlier: debate
on the Council election.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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