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On
Yemen, Sources
Quote Guterres
That “Saudis
Won't Talk To
Me Anymore,”
Feltman Ax?
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Periscope;
Video
UNITED NATIONS,
October 4 – On Yemen, sources
close to UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres saying, "the
Saudis won't even talk to me
anymore," in connection with the
current plan of including the Saudi-led
Coalition in the Children and
Armed Conflict annex in a
section for those child killers
who "have put in place measures
during the reporting period to
improve the protection of
children." The sources also focus
on the UN Department of Political
Affairs holdover chief Jeffrey
Feltman, who last time conveyed
the fatwa threat to then
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
This time, Inner City Press is
informed, Feltman faces a move
to belatedly replace him, coming
(the request, now yet the
execution) this week. We'll have
more on this. When a Yemen
meeting during the UN General
Assembly week was held at 8 am
on September 22, new UN Relief
Chief Mark Lowcock introduced as
speakers the foreign ministers
of Sweden and the Netherlands,
representatives of Japan and the
UAE, and the UN's envoy Ismael
Ould Cheikh Ahmed. While billed
as a humanitarian meeting, the
UAE spoke without irony about
outside interference. (Yemen's
representative spoke in Arabic;
Inner City Press streamed
Periscope video).
On September 28, Inner City
Press asked Lowcock whether he
thought the meeting had a
sufficiently humanitarian
character. He pointed to his
concluding statements, which
Inner City Press had not heard
(see below), saying that the
focus should be on humanitarian
access, and later lamenting the
continuing failure to deploy
cranes. The reason Inner City
Press was unable to get these
views, and others, on September
22 is, in a phrase, UN
censorship. To get to the
meeting, held in UN Conference
Room 5, Inner City Press unlike
other no-show reporters like
Egypt's Akhbar al Yom was
required to get a UN escort or
minder, who told Inner City
Press it could not ask questions
or speak with anyone. This
despite UN OCHA staff telling
Inner City Press it could wait
outside and speak to people as
they left. So the UN's
retaliatory eviction of Inner
City Press 19 months ago for
covering the now conflicted UN
corruption by Macau based
businessman Ng Lap Seng through
then PGA John Ashe now results
in it, unlike the Saudi and
pro-Saudi media in the meeting,
being unable to speak to the
participants. This has been
raised, so far without any
response, to Lowcock's fellow
Brit, the head of DPI Alison
Smale, here.
This is today's UN. We hope to
report more on Lowcock's views,
including hoping that OCHA
releases transcripts of what
Lowcock says. While Canada join | |
