On
Libya,
Ban Ki-moon 's Envoy Khatib Works in Jordan, Ruling Snubbed,
Private Planes Demanded from UN
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 27, updated -- The
ostensibly full time envoy to Libya of UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Abdul Ilah Al Khatib, “does have
some responsibilities still in Jordan,” Ban's acting deputy
spokesman Farhan Haq told Inner City Press on March 25.
For
week Inner
City Press has asked the UN about Al Khatib still being paid as a
Senator in Jordan and about his business interests including as a
director of Jordan Ahli Bank which is a co top 20 owner of Union de
Banques Arabes et Francaise with the Gaddafi controlled Libya
Foreign
Bank.
Now,
Inner City
Press has learned that after this questioning began, UN staff wrote
to the UN Office of Legal Affairs seeking a ruling on Al Khatib's
unprecedented double service. OLA, with Ban's top lawyer Patricia
O'Brien not there, has rendered the obvious ruling, that such double
service is not permissible for a staff member or UN Envoy.
Tellingly,
Ban has
yet to acting on the ruling by his legal department, the staff tell
Inner City Press. Rather, as Haq belatedly put it on March 25,
“because of the speed with which we felt the need to appoint an
envoy, some of the terms of his contract are still being worked out.”
But
these
conflicts of interest were obvious before
Ban offered Al Khatib the
job, after being turned down by Lakhdar Brahimi and Kemal Dervis.
Close observers say that while Al Khatib may not be able,
particularly with these conflicts, to negotiate any less bloody
outcome in Libya, he negotiated masterfully with Ban Ki-moon.
Ban & al-Khatib, Jordan pay not shown, who's
playing whom?
Once
Ban publicly
named Al Khatib as his envoy without getting any commitment to stop
outside activities, Al Khatib has all the leverage. He is refusing to
stop his activities, the sources say, and is in fact demanding that
he remain based in Amman, Jordan.
Al
Khatib wants UN
staff assigned to him there -- already he “borrowed” a Jordanian
spokesman from the Beirut-based UN Economic and Social Council for
Western Asia, run by a Jordanian -- and demands to be met at airports
and flown on private planes.
“Al Khatib is a
great negotiator,” a well place source tells Inner City Press,
“just not in or for Libya.”
With
Al Khatib
serving as a Senator in Jordan, protesters have recently been killed
in that country. When Ban unveiled Al Khatib as his envoy at a
tightly controlled press stakeout, Inner City Press asked, “What
about Jordan?” The two men walked away from the microphone. Last
week, Inner City Press was not allowed to ask Ban about Khatib. Watch
this site.
Update: at the UN
noon briefing on March 28, the day after the above was published, Ban's
spokesman Martin Nesirky declined Inner City Press' request that he
confirm or deny the OLA memo and that Khatib wants to be based in Amman
and use only private jets.
Nesirky said
that "some details are still being worked out" and he had "nothing to
add to that." Now Ban is headed to London - no chance to ask him.
Might Khatib fly there on a private jet?
* * *
UN
Now
Says
Envoy to Libya Khatib Still Has Responsibilities in Jordan, His
Contract
In Flux Amid Conflicts
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March
25 -- After dodging repeated questions
about whether
UN envoy to Libya Abdul Ilah Al Khatib is still paid by Jordan,
where
he is a Senator, when Inner City Press again asked the question on
March 25, Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq said that “the terms of his
contract are still being worked out... he still has some
responsibilities in Jordan.”
To
some, this
implies that contrary to UN charter and rules, Khatib is at the same
being paid by and serving a particular government and the UN.
Significantly, in Jordan this week water cannons were deployed on
protests, leading to the death of at least one protester.
Beyond
the
financial
conflicts of interest, including Khatib being a director of
Jordan Ahli Bank which is a co top 20 owners of Union de Banques
Arabes et Francaises with Libya Foreign Bank, 100% owned by Gaddafi's
Libya Central Bank, why would Secretary General Ban Ki-moon choose as
his envoy to Libya the former foreign minister of a country his own
advisers describe as an autocracy, which is itself now killing
protesters?
Haq
also on March
25 said that the decision about what political moves are acceptable
to the UN in Libya will be up to Khatib. “Talk about the fox
guarding the chicken house,” remarked one wag. The questions will
continue to be asked.
From
the
UN's March
25 transcript:
Inner
City
Press:
on the envoy, yesterday Martin [Nesirky] had said, it’s
been going around for a couple of days, is… whether Mr. [Abdul
Ilah] Khatib, what is his status with the UN? Is he a USG
[Under-Secretary-General]? Is he a staff member? And is he still
being paid by the Government of Jordan? It seemed like it shouldn’t
be that difficult to get yes or no answers to those three.
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson
Haq: Well, part of the thing is, because of the
speed with which we felt the need to appoint an envoy, some of the
terms of his contract are still being worked out. So I don’t have
any firm answers about the nature of his contract to give right now,
because that is being worked out with him. He does have some
responsibility still in Jordan, as well as his position here with us.
What ARE those responsibilities in, and
payments from,
Jordan? Watch this site.
, 
