With
Gambari Set to
Leave Darfur,
Tries for OIC
or
Qatar, Syria
Contradictions
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 6 --
The UN and its
officials
always know
which side
their bread is
buttered on.
Take
outgoing
Darfur envoy
Ibrahim
Gambari.
While UN staff
complained to
Inner City
Press that
Gambari was
flying around
looking for
his next
job, less and
less present
in El Fasher,
despite
building a
$600,000
house there,
Inner City
Press held off
writing about
his job
search. Click
here
for UN
confirmation
of Inner City
Press' exclusive
on Casa
Gambari, and a
(Gulf)
television
pick up - video
here, from
Minute 14:25.
During
Gambari's
last
appearance at
the UN
Security
Council,
Inner City
Press asked
him a pointed
question about
this job
search. I am
exploring all
my options,
Gambari said.
He declined an
on-camera
stakeout,
saying he
speak
one-on-one
later.
Now
comes
exclusive news
to and from
Inner City
Press that
Gambari might
like to
replace
Ekmeleddin
Ihsanoglu of
Turkey as
Secretary
General of the
Organization
of Islamic
Cooperation.
Not only is
OIC
headquartered
in Jeddah --
here is the
lead of a recent
Saudi Gazette
article:
"No
Muslim leader
can unite the
Muslim nation
like King
Abdullah,
Custodian of
the Two Holy
Mosques, said
Ekmeleddin
Ihsanoglu,
Secretary
General of the
Organization
of Islamic
Cooperation
(OIC),
during an Okaz
Forum held
recently and
attended by
members from
the
Shoura
Council,
Syrian
National
Council."
The
irony in light
of OIC's
support, like
Saudi Arabia,
for anti-Assad
rebels in
Syria is that
Gambari
repeatedly had
run-ins with
Western
powers on the
Security
Council for
his closeness
first with the
Myanmar
military
government
then with
Sudan's
International
Criminal
Court indicted
president Omar
al Bashir.
But
to head OIC,
and please its
main Saudi
backers and
host, Gambari
would have to
be on the same
side as the
West on Syria.
On
the other
hand, his
historic
closeness with
Myanmar's
government
might get him
access, at
least, to the
country on the
issue of the
Rohingya. And
it could bring
a new focus on
Boko Haram in
Gambari's
native
Nigeria.
Gambari's
fall-back
position,
sources say,
would be as
some sort of
adviser on
Africa to the
rulers of
Qatar, based
in Doha to
which he
traveled so
often in his
Darfur post.
But given
Qatar's
position in
Libya, and
that country's
new leaders'
aversion to
sub Saharan
Africa, how
would
a Gambari role
play out.
We
maintain, only
partially
tongue in
cheek, the suggestion
we made
directly to
Gambari: that
if a UN envoy
to Mali and
Northern Mali
/
Azawad is
named, Gambari
go for this
post. Real
race at the
OIC?
We'll see.
, 
