At
UN
on Syria, Rift
on How to
Report,
Taranco Got
"Reamed Out,"
Ban Ki-Moon
Envoy Only if
to London Too?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 10,
updated below
-- In the
run-up to Wednesday's
UN Security
Council
"update"
meeting on
Syria,
there was a
preliminary
skirmish in
the Council as
to whether the
update, to be
given by
Assistant
Secretary
General Oscar
Fernandez-Taranco,
should be
given
only in closed
door
consultations,
as requested
by Russia and
some
others, or in
the Council's
larger
chamber.
At
3 pm it
emerged it
would be in
the smaller
consultations
room.
The
split
symbolized the
ongoing
disagreement
in the Council
about how to
deal
with Syria and
its Assad
government.
Even
after the
supposedly
unanimous
adoption of a
Presidential
Statement one
week
ago -- Lebanon
"disassociated"
itself from
the PRST and
said it wasn't
helpful -- on
Wednesday
morning a
Western
Council
members
spokesman told
Inner City
Press the
visit to
Damascus by
vice
ministers of
India, Brazil
and South
Africa was
"just a
delaying
tactic."
Click
here
for IBSA
statement,
put online by
Inner City
Press.
In
this view,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon (who
is in South
Korea) naming
an envoy
or special
adviser on
Syria might
also just be a
"time waster
like the
appointment of
Al Khatib to
Libya."
On
the other
hand,
some even
within the UN
Secretariat
have
questioned Ban
considering
appointing an
"Anglo Saxon"
envoy to
Syria.
Click here
for Inner City
Press'
report.
Inner City
Press asked
Ban's acting
deputy
spokesman
Farhan Haq if
Ban can
appoint an
envoy without
a Council
mandate or the
consent of the
country
concerned.
Haq's answer,
referring to
somewhat
similar moves
by Ban in
Yemen and
Tunisia,
appeared to be
"yes."
But
Inner City
Press is
informed that
when Syria
Permanent
Representative
Bashar
Ja'afari
returned
recently to
New York from
Damascus, he
met with and
"reamed out"
-- that is, to
jump from
street to
diplomatese,
demarched --
Oscar
Fernandez-Taranco.
When
Ja'afari
came out of
the Council on
August 9 he
told Inner
City Press he
had
met with this
month's
Council
president,
Hardeep Singh
Puri. Inner
City Press
asked, "About
tomorrow's
Syria
meeting?"
"Not
about
Syria -- about
London,"
Ja'afari
quipped,
referring to
the riots
or unrest
there.
What
does Syrian
think of Ban
possibly
appointing an
envoy, Inner
City Press
asked.
Ja'afari
answered,
"An envoy to
where --
London?" And
so it goes at
the UN.
Watch this
site.
Update
of
4:59 pm --
Nearly two
hours after
the "update"
to the
Council on
Syria began,
the closed
door meeting
continues.
Well
placed source
in the meeting
exclusively
tells Inner
City Press it
now concerns a
proposal, from
the UK, to
have another
update in
seven
days time.
"Procedural
issues," the
source says,
rolling
eyes.
, 
in