In
UN, Reviews of
Feltman Run
from
“Hopeless”
Even to “Too
Young for Ban”
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 26, updated
– That two of
the states
mentioned in
UN
official
Jeffrey
Feltman's
briefing
Tuesday were
critical of
him is not
surprising.
But the
negative
reviews extend
further.
Syrian
Permanent
Representative
Bashar
Ja'afari told
Inner City
Press “it's
a hopeless
case,” saying
Feltman
praised the
opposition's
al-Khatib
for offering
to talk, but
not the Assad
government.
Palestine,
too,
said UN envoy
Robert Serry
better
captures the
“pulse on the
ground,” while
Feltman
reflects “the
pulse of a
dead body,”
meaning UN
Headquarters
or the
Security
Council.
Perhaps
that
is how Feltman
perceives his
job: to dash
the hopes of
the
Palestinians
and be
critical of
Assad's Syria.
And
both of these
positions are
popular at
least with
some Council
members.
But
a Security
Council member
on February 25
told Inner
City Press
there
is increasing
frustration
among Council
members that
“Feltman
doesn't
understand his
role -- he is
supposed to
implement
things the
Council
decides.”
The
example given
was about
Mali, on which
Feltman and
his Department
of
Political
Affairs are
perceived to
have lost out
to the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations of
Herve Ladsous,
or France.
More
systematically,
a senior UN
official told
Inner City
Press last
week
that Feltman
“has less
power than
Pascoe,” his
predecessor
atop
DPA, had.
Inner City
Press has
already
written about
how Jan
Eliasson
coming in as
Deputy
Secretary
General cut
into the power
and role of
DPA. (Feltman
responded to
Inner City
Press,
generously,
that the more,
the merrier.)
But it's
beyond that.
The
senior UN
official,
close to
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, told
Inner City
Press that Ban
“respects
older people.
Pascoe had
gray
hair. Feltman
is and looks
younger. Ban
doesn't take
him as
seriously.”
If
so, that might
be on Ban.
Anyway,
this we can't
prove. But the
less than
positive
reviews, not
only from the
states Feltman
reports on,
but from
inside
the Security
Council, are
not a good
sign.
We've
said it
before: one
answer might
be for Feltman
to speak more,
answer
more, explain
himself. Why
not? He did
well at his
one press
conference,
not only answering
on Mali
but on less
central UN
topics such as
Madgascar.
Why not speak
more? Seriously?
Watch
this site.
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