On Way
to Iran, Ban
Makes Time for
Those He Met
JFK With,
Syria's on
Brahimi
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, Aug
27, updated
Aug 29
-- On the eve
of heading to
Iran for the
Non-Aligned
Movement
summit and
other
meetings, UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon late
Monday held photo
ops and
then a seminar
and dinner
with people
he'd met John
F. Kennedy
with fifty
years ago.
In
groups of two
and three, or
sometimes
alone, Ban's
long ago
colleagues
posed for a
half dozen
photographers,
mostly South
Korean but
including UN
Photo and
Inner City
Press; some
said a few
words for UN
Television.
"About
Lebanon," one
of them began.
"Later,"
Ban
replied
genially. Ban
told the press
of a dinner
later at the
Korean Mission
--
participants
on the
multi-day
VISTA reunion
told Inner
City Press
that Mission
picked up much
of the tab --
after a
"seminar" in
North Lawn
conference
room 6.
"How
does my office
compare with
the White
House?" Ban
asked a
participant.
When the
review was not
favorable, he
added "this is
my temporary
office, we
have to move
back" -- he
gestured at
the now
filling back
up Secretariat
Building.
The
UN's Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
Unit added the
photo op at
the last
minute, and
Ban seemed
surprised to
see some of
the
photographers
there. Click
here for a
tweeted photo.
There were,
however, South
Korean
videographers
following the
VISTA tour of
the UN, and
having MALU
staff take
personal
pictures for
them.
Update
of Aug 29:
Further
inquiry by
Inner City
Press has
yielded
answers that
the South
Korean mission
picked up much
of the tab. We
also wish to
make clear, as
we thought it
was, that MALU
staff was paid
by no one by
the UN.
Ban's
new political
adviser
Jeffrey
Feltman, who
is going on
the trip to
Iran even if
some say he
cautioned
against it,
was seen
buzzing around
one story
below in a
light suit
coat.
On the
way up, Inner
City Press
stopped and
spoke with
Rwanda's
foreign
minister
Louise
Mushikiwabo,
who has been
critical of
the
Ban-approved
coordinator of
the DR Congo
Sanctions
Group of
Experts, Steve
Hege.
Many
fights remain
at the UN,
including
Thursday
French-organized
ministerial
meeting on
Syria. After 7
pm, Ahmad
Fawzi the
spokesman for
Kofi Annan and
it seem
Lakhdar
Brahimi was
still pacing
around in the
hall outside
the Ban VISTA
seminar. But
Ban is off for
Iran. Watch
this site.
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