Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

As UN Sends “Low Level” Envoy to Libya, Provides “Cover to NATO"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 17 -- With the UN making much of having sent Jordanian senator and businessman Abdel-Elah Al Khatib as its envoy to Libya, Inner City Press on May 16 asked Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations what he thinks might come of the UN's work on Libya.

  “Nothing,” Cook said flatly. Pressed, he said that even countries which “supposedly have leverage... like Turkey with Assad” of Syria, are having little impact. It has become “existential” for Gaddafi, Assad and Salih of Yemen, he said.

  So sending a “relatively low level Arab functionary, a former foreign minister” like Al Khatib will accomplish little, he predicted. “The UN need to be doing something because it's the UN,” he said.

  Inner City Press asked about the UN's role, under the Security Council's resolutions, in coordinating and record-keeping for enforcement of the Libya no fly zone and arms embargo. Cook was again dismissive. “The UN provided legal cover for NATO in Libya,” he said. And that was it.

  Meanwhile at the UN on Tuesday, the Security Council will get a briefing on Yemen, where the immunity deal brokered by the GCC has fallen apart. No action has been taken, or even tried of late, regarding Syria.

The UN has still refused to “clarify” Al Khatib's contract, how he was at once work for the UN and be a paid Jordanian senator. The UN Department of Political Affairs put Ian Martin in a position for “post transition” Libya, but has refused requests by Inner City Press to describe what Martin is doing, or even what his rank is.

Now Inner City Press is told that Martin wants to replace Haile Menkerios in South Sudan, in a mission that Khartoum is moving to throw out of the North. And so it goes at the UN.

From CFR's May 16 transcript:

OPERATOR:  Thank you.  Our next question comes from Matthew Lee from Inner City Press.

Inner City Press: Yeah, hello.  I cover the U.N. a lot, so I wanted to know -- and I know it's a smaller part of a larger story, but what you guys each think of the U.N. -- I guess the secretary's performance in Libya and Yemen, both of which they have kind of envoys do.  I mean, obviously they're having to, you know, please the major powers, but do you have any insight into -- you have this Jordanian senator, al-Khatib, that they've sent to Libya a couple times.  What do you think is going to come of that?

COOK:  Nothing.  (Pause.)  Is that concise enough?

(Cross talk.)

ROSE:  No, expound, Mike -- I'm sorry -- Steve.

COOK:  Well, no, look, I think that what -- and I think this is the case with any kind of envoy.  And we see this with countries that actually supposedly have leverage and influence in the region, is that the Gadhafis, the Assads, the Salehs of the Middle East, it has now become existential for them.  And so no matter what kind of vaunted leverage the Turks, for example, believe they have with Assad, if it's a choice between what Assad believes is in his interest and what the Turks are telling him to do, he's going to ignore it.

Then you take the U.N., which does not have the same kind of leverage or influence, and they have some moral authority and some, you know, relatively low-level Arab functionary or former prime minister to come over and talk something -- some sort of sense into these people strikes me as -- it strikes me that the U.N. needs to do something because it's the U.N., but there's hardly any reason to believe that they can be effective.

Inner City Press:  And what about the U.N.'s role in the military?  I mean, I'm assuming you're going to say largely the same thing, but supposedly they're coordinating the enforcement of the no-fly zone and the arms embargo.  I mean, is that just sort of a joke?

COOK:  Well, look.  You know, the U.N. has provided legal cover for NATO to be doing what NATO is doing in Libya right now. 

Inner City Press: Asked and answered.