As
France Offers
to Recognize
Syria
Opposition,
Russia Cites
Geneva
Deal
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 30 -- France
has grandly
announced that
it stands
ready to
recognize the
Syrian
opposition as
the
government.
After
Thursday's
Security
Council
session, Inner
City Press
asked Russian
Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin
what he
thought of the
idea.
Churkin
was
diplomatic,
beginning that
"off course
people look
for
various ideas
to think of...
We need to
apply one
criteria, how
those
ideas are
correlated
with a
consensus
basis which is
reflected in
the
Geneva
communiqué."
This
has been
Russia's
mantra, the
text that was
agreed on June
30 in
Geneva by the
so-called
Action Group
on Syria. But
when Churkin
this
month invited
the members of
the Action
Group to meet
at New York,
despite French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
saying he
accepts such
invitations,
the meeting
did not take
place.
The
United States,
whose Susan
Rice was back
in the
Security
Council for
Thursday's
meetin, and
the United
Kingdom were
said to
"boycott"
the meeting
convened by
Russia.
Inner City
Press was told
by sources
that Germany,
too, rebelled.
It is not a
member of the
Action Group,
but demanded
that if the
Action Group
met, it
immediately
report back
to the
Council. The
meeting never
happened.
And
Russia's
Foreign
Minister
Lavrov did not
come to the
Council on
Thursday;
neither did
Hillary
Clinton or
Germany's
minister
Westerwelle.
Prior to the
meeting, a
Syrian
diplomat
mocked the
French meeting
to Inner City
Press, saying
"they got
ministers
of Togo &
Morocco, old
French, no
Hillary, not
even Germany."
Churkin
continued
with his
answer, that
"the Geneva
communique
does
speak about
this
traditional
body composed
of, by the
representatives
of the
government and
various
opposition
groups. I'm
not sure this
idea of a
government
which will be
recognized
even before we
know
what kind of a
government
this is, that
is entirely in
line with the
ideas
reflected in
the Geneva
document. This
is a question
I have in
my mind as I
hear these
ideas
expressed."
Several
times,
Churkin said
he didn't want
to engage in
"polemics"
with other
Security
Council
members'
foreign
ministers. And
so he
left this one
was a
question, to
which we will
continue to
seek an
answer.
Of
those who came
to speak at
the stakeout
after
Thursday's
meeting,
Inner City
Press got in
questions not
only to
Churkin and
Syrian
Ambassador
Bashar
Ja'afari, but
also to
UNHCR's
Gutterez and
even to
the foreign
minister of
Turkey, Ahmet
Davutoglu --
but not to
France's
Laurent
Fabius.
The French are
tightly
controlled.
But what
did
they
accomplish,
really, in
their August
presidency of
the
Security
Council? Click
here for a
review by
Inner City
Press. And
watch this
site.
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