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As Benghazi Backslides on Elections, UN Ban Has No Comment, No UK Notice?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 26 -- With UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon neither receiving or requesting notices from the countries bombing Libya under Resolution 1973, he also has no comment on the Benghazi based rebels backsliding on democracy, or at least the speed of elections.

  The vice chairman of the National Transitional Council announced this week that elections, assuming Gaddafi is killed or removed from power, would not be held in six months, but rather in two years.

  One might assume that the UN and Ban, who has appointed two separate and some say contradictory envoys on Libya, would have a reaction. But one would be wrong.

From the UN's transcription of its May 26 noon briefing:

Inner City Press: the Vice-Chairman of the national transitional council has said that even if Qadhafi were to leave it would take up to two years to organize elections, and I wanted to know whether, I don’t know if that would be Mr. al-Khatib, or Mr. Martin, but who in the UN… is there any response to that? Do you think that’s a reasonable period of time or the initially stated six months is a more… Do you have… I guess, does the UN have any… given that it has at least two sort of envoys or people working on it, what’s the response to that?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Well, in addition to the two people you mentioned, there is of course a team within the Department of Political Affairs that deals with election support of various kinds, and would have the expertise to provide advice if asked at the time. I don’t think we’re quite at that point yet, to answer your specific question. But I think you can take it as read that our colleagues who deal with this matter will be preparing to help if they are asked.


Ban and Jordanian senator Khatib: still (Ban Ki) Moon-lighting?

Inner City Press: what’s the level of contact? Does, for example, this DPA unit of Mr. Martin, do they have any… are they in communication with the transitional, national transitional council?

Spokesperson: Well, Al-Khatib, the Special Envoy, met with representatives of the Transitional National Council in Doha just the other day.

  But the UN has yet to explain Al-Khatib's status with the UN - is he a staff member? Is he still getting paid by Jordan at the same time, as a Senator? What of his business interests?

 What of Al Khabib's reported anger at being undercut by the appointment of Ian Martin, leading to Martin apply to a different job, in South Sudan?

  Meanwhile, the UN has provided no update to spokesman Martin Nesirky's response to Inner City Press that Ban received no notice, under the no fly zone and arms embargo provisions of Resolution 1973, of France and now the UK sending attack helicopters to Libya. Watch this site.

* * *

As French & UK Copters to Libya, UN Has No Notice, Abdicates Its Role

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 23 -- With the UK now openly saying that it will join France in deploying and using attack helicopters in Libya, the silence of the UN which is supposed to receive notice of and even coordinate such action is striking.

  In UN Security Council resolution 1973, for legitimization's sake UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was to receive notice of and coordinate action to enforce the no fly zone and arms embargo.

  While the spokesman for Ban Ki-moon have since tried to claim Ban does not coordinate, on Monday his lead spokesman Martin Nesirky acknowledged the notification role, but said no notification of the helicopters had been received.

  This remained the case ten hours later, even as the UK's William Hague said openly the helicopters would be used. So who is coordinating what?


Ban & UK Hague, notice of copters to Libya not shown

From the UN's May 23 transcript:

Inner City Press: There are these reports of France, or sometimes, it’s said, NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization], bringing attack helicopters to, into the Libyan theatre, with the idea of using them, I guess, to protect civilians, but it made… given… and I under the resolution 1973 (2011), there seems to be some role for the Secretary-General to coordinate or get notifications; has he received anything in regard of the shift to attack helicopters in Libya?

Spokesperson Nesirky: To receive notifications, that’s right, and to relay them to the Security Council. I am not aware of any notification on that particular topic. We’re aware of the reports. That doesn’t mean there has not been a notification; I am not aware of one. I have already asked our colleagues who deal with this to check whether there is any development on that front.

But then no information, ten hours later and counting. Watch this site.

* * *

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.

Click for Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

 Click here for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.

Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate

Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate

Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate

Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56

Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza

Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate

Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger

Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards

Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics

and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.

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These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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