| Biden Rep
Upbeat on Iran But Nothing on NPT
Compliance, Afrasiabi FARA Violations @UN
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Transcript
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
UN GATE / SDNY,
April 9 – After a series of
indirect talks with Iran in
Vienna, a Senior US State
Department Office on April 9
took questions from the press
about the JCPOA.
Former
Iran hostage Jason Rezaian
noted that now Iran has
hostages from the UK and
Germany and ask how that is
being addressed.
That
answer, like others, was
largely upbeat: the
Administration will be back in
Vienna next week, and wants to
work with the U.S. Congress in
good faith. (Good luck, see
e.g. UNRWA).
James
Rosen asked, Is Iran in
compliance with the NPT?
The Senior State Department
Official said that was beyond
him, and did not answer.
No one
asked about the EDNY's
Afrasiabi prosecution for FARA
violations with Iran's UN
Mission, with reports provided
to the UN and payments by
UNFCU, on which the UN refuses
to answer Inner City Press.
With US
Secretary of State Antony
Blinken headed to the United
Nations on March 29, if only
virtually, on March 26 Inner
City Press asked Department of
State Bureau of International
Organization Affairs Senior
Bureau Official Erica
Barks-Ruggles two questions
about the UN - below, along
with Ned Price's subsequent
read-out.
First,
Inner City Press asked why the
US Mission has declined,
during its now-waning UN
Security Council presidency,
to circulate to the other
member states the at least
four names of opponents to
Antonio Guterres for the
position of UN Secretary
General.
The Office
of the President of the
General Assembly Volkan Bozkir
- a man who complained
that NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio
would not meet with him, which
Inner City Press linked to
Bozkir's previous bigoted
statements it has reported
on - has repeatedly said he
shared the four names with US
Ambassador Linda
Thomas-Greenfield.
But none
have been circulated, despite
the fact that the applicable
UNGA resolution
does not require, as Guterres
and his supporters are trying
to imply, that only candidates
submitted by and beholden to a
member state get circulated.
Erica Barks-Ruggles replied
that the Secretary General
issue would be on Secretary
Blinken's agenda during his
virtual visit.
Inner City Press
would ask a follow up, but
despite being accredited at
the IMF,
and in-house Press at the SDNY
court, the UN under Guterres does
not allow Inner City
Press in to its briefings,
even by WebEx. For that
reason, and in full
disclosure, it is one of the
four. We will have more on
this. And on this, the
read-out:
"Secretary of
State Antony J. Blinken held a
virtual meeting with UN
Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres today to discuss U.S.
priorities at the United
Nations. They focused on the
ways in which we can work
together to address regional
and global challenges and
strengthen the foundational
principles and values of the
UN and the multilateral
system, including the
protection of human rights and
the dignity of every
individual no matter their
citizenship, ethnicity,
religion, gender, or race.
Secretary Blinken welcomed
close coordination with the UN
regarding the political
settlement and the permanent
and comprehensive ceasefire in
Afghanistan as well as the
need to renew and expand
cross-border aid delivery in
Syria. They discussed efforts
in Ethiopia to secure greater
humanitarian access across the
country, the necessity for
Eritrean forces to withdraw
from Tigray, and the need for
independent, international
investigations into human
rights abuses, noting the
recent travel of Senator
Christopher Coons as President
Biden’s emissary. On Western
Sahara, Secretary Blinken
underscored U.S. support for
political negotiations and
urged the Secretary-General to
expedite the appointment of a
Personal Envoy.
Secretary Blinken welcomed the
new interim Government of
National Unity in Libya,
underscored the importance of
national elections in December
of this year and the need for
foreign forces to depart, and
pledged full support for UN
Special Envoy Jan Kubis and
the UN Support Mission in
Libya (UNSMIL). They agreed to
continue close U.S.-UN
coordination on these and
other matters."
Guterres has
failed on Western Sahara. And
he has banned the Press which
has asked about it.
Inner City Press also asked if
the Biden Administration sees
any UN role in addressing the
ongoing mass killings in the
Anglophone areas of Cameroon.
Erica
Barks-Ruggles apologized for
not having more, noting that
the UN Security Council has
not taken up Cameroon.
Inner City Press
might well have asked the same
about Honduras, whose
president Juan Orlando
Hernandez was just showed up
in the SDNY as linked to
narco-trafficking.
Here's the transcript:
MS PORTER:
I think it’s safe to move
along. We will go to the
line of Matthew Russell
Lee. QUESTION:
Great, thanks a lot.
Thanks for taking the
question. One of the
controversies right now in the
UN is this – if Antonio
Guterres is up for
re-election, and the question
is whether there will be other
candidates. There are at
least four candidates who have
provided names and CVs, but
they haven’t been circulated
to the member-states both by
the president of the General
Assembly you mentioned and
even by the U.S. mission this
month, the president of the
Security Council. I
wanted to know what’s the
administration’s – I mean,
does that seem right? Is
that something that the
Secretary’s going to
discuss? And what’s the
mission’s thinking on not
having circulated names during
this month?
And one other
thing, it’s something that the
UN has – the council has not
worked on, but does the
administration think that
there’s a UN role in dealing
with the ongoing kind of mass
killings in the Anglophone
areas of Cameroon? The
issue has been going on for
some years and the Council has
had a few AOBs, but never
actually met on or done
anything on. Thanks a
lot.
AMBASSADOR
BARKS-RUGGLES: On the
secretary-general race, we, of
course, as members of the
Council and permanent members
of the Council, will be very
much engaged in this
process. We obviously
work closely with the current
secretary-general and will
look forward to that strong
and constructive relationship
continuing, and I think that
that’s – that will be part of
the discussions that Secretary
Blinken will have with the
secretary-general. But
I’m not going to get into the
details of diplomatic
discussions. On
Cameroon, I’m sorry. I
don’t have anything for you on
that at this point. It
has not been discussed in the
Security Council up to this
point
We'll have more
on this as well. Watch this
site.
***
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