At
UN
on Syria, War
of Spin &
Briefings,
Doubts on
SyriaTel
Sanctions,
Ban's Call
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 10,
updated with video -- As the UN
Security
Council met
Wednesday
about
Syria,
sources told
Inner City
Press from the
outset to
expect no
formal Council
Presidential
Statement
output at the
end.
A Western
member's
spokesman
emerged and
said "we just
want to keep
the
pressure on
Assad." When
asked "how" he
said, "through
you, the
media."
Which
a Council
output not
even on the
table, inside
consultations
the issue
became
whether and
how soon to
get another
briefing about
Syria. A
source
told Inner
City Press
that the UK
proposed
another
briefing in
seven
days.
Inner
City Press
asked Baso
Sangqu, the
Permanent
Representative
of South
Africa --
which along
with India and
Brazil has
vice ministers
in Damascus, click
here
for IBSA
statement,
put online by
Inner City
Press
--
"will there be
a briefing in
seven days?"
"No,
not in
seven days,"
Ambassador
Sangqu said.
"It's in the
hands of
the President,
ask the
President. But
there's been a
request for a
meeting."
When
President of
the Council
for August
Hardeep Singh
Puri of India
came out,
Inner
City Press
sought to ask
him. But US
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Rosemary
DiCarlo
engaged Puri
in a heated
discussion for
several
minutes, in
the public
hall outside
the Security
Council.
Click
here for
YouTube video.
At
the end of the
exchange,
Inner City
Press asked
Puri about a
briefing.
"There
will be a
briefing," he
said, "most
likely next
week."
Later
the Deputy
Permanent
Representatives
of the
Council's four
European
members
clarified that
they except
top UN
humanitarian
Valerie Amos
and the
Office of the
High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights to do
the briefing.
Wednesday's
briefing
was done by
Assistant
Secretary
General Oscar
Fernandez
Taranco, who
for some
reason did not
speak to the
press. The
Western
spokesman who
said the media
should
pressure Assad
was asked to
have
his country
urge Taranco
to speak to
the press. But
it did not
happen.
A
cynic might
say
that the four
European
countries
wanted to be
seen -- and
filmed --
as doing
something on
Syria; urging
a Secretariat
official to
come
and take
questions on
camera was
less important
or appealing.
One
also wonders
why, after the
meeting, the
four Europeans
and then
Syria's
Permanent
Representative
Bashar
Ja'afari were
the only ones
to come speak
at
the formal UN
stakeout.
Russia's
Vitaly Churkin
spoke, on the
stairs
outside the
Council, and
said among
other things
it is
disappointing
that the
Syrian
opposition has
not responded
to reform
proposals.
Inner
City Press
asked UK
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Philip Parham
to respond to
this, and to
complaints
that sanctions
against
SyriaTel, the
cell
phone company,
might make
communications
in the country
more
difficult,
including for
the
opposition.
Parham
noted his
and his
colleagues'
previous
statement
that, in
essence,
violence and
crackdowns
have to stop
to allow for
dialogue. He
said he could
not
respond on
SyriaTel, not
knowing the
facts.
Ja'afari
told
Inner City
Press, off
camera, that
SyriaTel is
the regular
cell phone
company in his
country. Inner
City Press was
going to ask
him on
camera,
expecting him
to come to
reply to
Parham's
dismissal of
his
comparison
between the
London riots
and events in
Syria. But
Parham
was the last
on-camera
speaker.
Inner
City Press
asked Ja'afari
if Assad would
accept an
envoy from Ban
Ki-moon.
Ja'afari
replied that
Assad's recent
call with Ban
was very
productive.
Quiet
diplomacy?
We'll see -
watch this
site.
* * *
, 
in