After
PA's Fayyad Blocked, Talk of
Tunisian, Livni & UN
Rights Certification,
Murky
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
February 13 – The US blocked
UN Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' nomination of the
Palestinian Authority's Salam
Fayyad to be UN envoy to
Libya.
On
February 13 Inner City Press
asked Guterres' deputy
spokesman Farhan Haq to
explain what the "usual consultations"
mentioned in the February 8
letter to the Security Council
from Guterres consisted of.
Haq refused to elaborate, nor
to explain Guterres reportedly
preparing to give the top post
in UN Peacekeeping to France
to the fifth time in a row. Video here.
Questions
for once came in fast and on
the same topic at the day's UN
noon briefing. Many questioners
bemoaned what they've
described as "Trump blocking a
Palestinian." Among those
lines, Inner City Press notes
in light of the reports and
questions about Tzipi Livni
being offered an Under Secretary
General job, and an arrest
warrant in Belgium, this line
from the vacancy notice of
noted UN censor Cristina Gallach:
"Individuals who
are either nominated by Member
States or who seek to serve
with the United Nations in any
individual capacity will be
required, if short-listed, to
complete a self-attestation
stating that they have not
committed, been convicted of,
nor prosecuted for, any
criminal offence and have not
been involved, by act or
omission, in the commission of
any violation of international
human rights law or
international humanitarian
law."
Sources
tell Inner City Press that
under consideration for the
Libya envoy post is a
Tunisian; we note Guterres
transition team member
Radhouane Nouicer of whom no
more has been said since the
transition ended January 31.
We'd ask, but Guterres' two
spokesmen answered only two
and a half of Inner City
Press' 22 questions, and his
deputy on February 13 when
Inner City Press asked about
the spending of UN funds said
"get
over it."
Meanwhile
Guterres' holdover UN spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric selectively spins
that Guterres had somehow
received a "green light" from
the US - like when Ban Ki-moon
invited Iran to the Syria talks
in Montreux, then disinvited
them on Monday.
This time,
Dujarric "told" at least three
favored media the exact same
thing: "Based on the information
available to him at the time,
the secretary-general had the
perception, now proven wrong,
that the proposal would be
acceptable to Security Council
members." Why not send this out
more widely? To Inner City
Press, Dujarric answered a mere
two and a half of twenty-two questions.
These holdovers have no
credibility.
One of the
two to which Dujarric doled out
his quote went on to quote
French Ambassador Francois
Delattre as having "full
confidence" in the UN chief's
personnel appointments. But of
course: France stands poised to
get the top UN Peacekeeping job
for the fifth time in a row.
The stories
did not mention that the UK had
- and now maybe still has - its
own candidate for the UN Libya
envoy post, Nicholas Kay.
Clearly the UK didn't think
Fayyad was best for the post.
We'll have more on this.
Inner City
Press on-camera
asked the UN about the
nomination earlier on February
10, noting that its sources told
it the nomination was really by
Jeffrey Feltman, the Obama
administration's appointee to
head the UN Department of
Political Affairs. Can Feltman
stay on, given the new
Administration in Washington?
While
Antonio Guterres' deputy
spokesman dodged Inner City
Press' question at noon on
February 10, and his lead
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric waited more than 10
hours to respond to Inner City
Press' question tweeted at him
that evening, an arch and in
context laughable response was
mass-emailed 11 hours later.
It sounded
reasonable - but why then for
example is Guterres restricting
his "search" for a head of UN
Peacekeeping to a single
country, France? As Inner City
Press has exclusively reported,
the three candidates are all
French: Jean Maurice Ripert (who
previously stood up the UN in
Pakistan), Jean Pierre Lacroix
and probably winner Sylvie
Bermann. There are other
examples.
Some cynics
wonder if this wasn't done as
theater, just before Guterres' 12-day
trip to Turkey, Saudi
Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, where
the UN's previous Libya sell-out
Bernardino Leon is getting paid.
Meritocracy, indeed.
Many
including those given offices by
the UN professed surprise at
Haley's statement, even
misunderstood it as mere regret
and not blocking. But neither
did they cover the long failure
of the UN in Libya. Ban Ki-moon
appointed then undercut Tarek
Mitri.
Ban was
pushed to appoint Bernardino
Leon of Spain, same as he
appointed and used that
country's Cristina Gallach to
evict the Press which asked of
their corruption. Then Leon sold
out to the UAE, and Martin
Kobler was put in.
Now
Guterres, replacing Ban but
leaving too many of Ban's
officials in place, from
spokesman Dujarric to DPA's
Feltman, bumbled again on Libya.
The UN has lost credibility. It
should focus and start over - as
well as reversing censorship.
Watch this site.
After Nikki
Haley's announcement, Israeli
Ambassador Danny Danon issues a
statement "on the announcement
by Ambassador Haley of the US
move to block the appointment of
former Palestinian Authority
Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad as
the Secretary General's Special
Envoy to Libya: 'This is the
beginning of a new era at the
UN.'"
So did
Antonio Guterres err in
nominating the PA's Fayyed on
February 8, then heading out on
a 12-day trip just as the US
expressed disappointment and
blocked the nomination? Inner
City Press has asked
Guterres' Office of the
Spokesperson, and Stephane
Dujarric personally, for a
comment. None yet received.
Nikki
Haley, US Permanent
Representative to the UN,
issued a statement on the
evening of February 10 that
“The United States was
disappointed to see a letter
indicating the intention to
appoint the former Palestinian
Authority Prime Minister to
lead the UN Mission in Libya.
For too long the UN has been
unfairly biased in favor of
the Palestinian Authority to
the detriment of our allies in
Israel. The United States does
not currently recognize a
Palestinian state or support
the signal this appointment
would send within the United
Nations, however, we encourage
the two sides to come together
directly on a solution. Going
forward the United States will
act, not just talk, in support
of our allies.”
That the UN would
be naming a successor as its
Libya envoy to Martin Kobler
of Germany was reported
by Inner City Press in
December along with the name
of one of the candidates, the
UK's Nick Kay.
Later,
after Antonio Guterres took
office at Secretary General, a
Permanent Member of the
Security Council confirmed to
Inner City Press the candidacy
of Kay adding that there was
"another strong candidate"
while declining to name that
candidate.
Guterres
wrote to the Security Council
that "following the usual
consultations" he is giving
the post to longtime
Palestinian Authority
politician Salam Fayyad, some
are asking of just what these
consultations consisted.
Some in
Libya opposed Fayyad's the
nomination; others linked it
to Jeffrey Feltman, the Obama
Administration's head of UN
Political Affairs who has
arranged to stay on until July
4 so that his UN pension
vests. How will that use of
funds now sit with Washington?
On
February 10, Inner City Press
asked the UN spokesman about
it, Transcript
here.
They note
that the Trump administration,
in its draft
Executive Order,
proposes cutting US funding to
any UN entity which allows the
Palestinian Authority as a
member, and is discussing
cutting funding to the PA. Was
the US
Mission to the UN
consulted? Which Mission?
And what
of Nick Kay, formerly UN envoy
to Somalia, now back with the
US FCO? Does Kobler return
immediately to the German
foreign service, where he
still has a position as he
told Inner City Press when
questioned about his
predecessor at UNSMIL
Bernardino Leon selling out to
the UAE diplomatic academy?
What Under Secretary General
post will Germany get in the
UN? Watch this site.
***
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