Brahimi,
Said to Have
Nobel, Says
"Too Soon" on
Assad, Fabius'
Threat?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 18,
updated -- The
Lakhdar
Brahimi public
relations
machine
kicked into
gear on August
17 after he
was named
Joint Special
Representative
to Syria.
He did phone
interviews
first with
French
state media
France 24,
telling them
that the UN
only cares
about
helping the
Syrian people.
Later
on August 17
Brahimi did a
phone
interview with
Al Jazeera
English,
which put
together a
package with
old footage of
him embracing
South
Africa's then
Ambassador
Dumisani
Kumalo in the
UN Security
Council,
which
mentioning
that Brahimi
serves on The
Elders with
Nelson
Mandela.
On
August 18
Brahimi called
Reuters, which
then wrote
for yet
another
time that
Brahami is "a
Nobel
Peace laureate."
But a simple
search
of the
official Nobel
web site does
not turn up
the name
Brahimi. A
Nobel was
given in 1988
to UN
Peacekeeping,
but if that
makes Brahimi
a Nobel
laureate many
others can
claim that
same prize.
So why the
designation? We'll
wait and
see.
Update:
while others
took note of
this
fact-check,
the "Brahimi
as Nobel Peace
laureate"
phrase
continued to proliferate,
from Reuters
to SABC,
Malta
Today, Euronews,
Ghana
Broadcasting
Corporation,
Eyewitness
News, Channel
4
Brahimi
has
said it's too
early for him
to say if
Assad should
leave power.
In this, he
differs from
Annan, and is
sure to make
Moscow,
Damascus
and at
least 10 other
capitals
happy.
But,
at least in
terms of the
US
presidential
election, of
Hillary
Clinton's and
the US Mission
to the UN's
quick rote
praise of
Brahimi?
On
the other
hand, French
foreign
minister
Laurent
Fabius,
appearing
with Turkish
foreign
minister
Davotoglu,
said that
Bashar al
Assad
"has no place
on this
planet" or
"doesn't
deserve to be
on this
earth."
What with Ban
Ki-moon's
quick
criticism of
Iranian
statements
about Israel,
one wondered
if
he or the UN
might express
some view of
Fabius'
dictum. But so
far,
no.
It
was reported
that Egypt's
Muslim
Brotherhood
presidency
would like to
be one of four
regional
powers to
address Syria,
along with
Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait
and Iran. The
exclusion of
Qatar would
surely be
noted, and
loudly, not
least on Al
Jazeera.
Amid
conflicting
reports of the
defection of
Assad's vice
president,
some
notes that
Saudi Al
Arabiya was
all over the
defection
while Al
Jazeera stayed
quiet. Was
this new
restraint? Or
indicative
that
Saudi and
Qatar have
dibs on
different
defectors?
Watch this
site.
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