At
UN,
US Delays New Libya Sanctions, With Russia and China, As UK
Complains
By
Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 8 -- After a proposal to add 10 Libyan
oil companies
and eight banks, among others, to the UN Security Council's sanctions
list was put out for five days to comment, three countries ended up
objecting and blocking the new listings.
That
Russia and
China objected was not unexpected. But, according to sources in the
Sanctions Committee, the United States also objected.
The
senior source,
while surprised that the Obama administration would effectively block
additional Libya sanctions, offered as an excuse that the US wanted
to “dot all the i's and cross the t's” so that the sanctions
listing would up to judicial review.
But
why, the
source asked, would China object when the executive branch these is
not really subject to judicial oversight?
As
previously
reported, the list of proposed additional sanctionees include the
Libyan Jamahirya Broadcasting Corp, the National Commercial Bank and
the Brega, Ras Lanuf, Sirte and Waha oil companies, each “owned or
controlled by the Libyan National Oil Corporation,” named in UN
Resolution 1973 adopted on March 17.
Inner
City Press
is told that the United Kingdom has expressed concern about the
blocks of the silence period, because no new five day period is
triggered. The response for now is that since Resolution 1973 says
that the new sanctions have to be in place within 30 days, April 17
is the new deadline. We'll see -- watch this site.
* * *
On
Libya,
Whack
Talk in Senate, Silence from UN, Filipina Nurses on Both
Sides
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April
6 -- Military action in Libya is ostensibly
coordinated by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, under Security
Council Resolution 1973. But his name barely came up in the US Senate
hearings about Libya on Wednesday.
Rather,
Senators
asked
if Gaddafi should be assassinated, and what is known about the
Benghazi based Transitional National Council.
Professor
Dirk
Vandewalle,
whose “History of Modern Libya” makes clear the
pre-existing rift between Tripoli and Benghazi -- in fact, the black
“royal” flag being flown by the rebels is to some extent a
Benghazi flag, as Western created King Sanusi was based there --
acknowledged he knows little about the TNC's 31 members.
Tom
Malinowski of
Human Rights Watch, on the other hand, said that the TNC has the type
of leaders HRW would select for Libya. Perhaps there was a better way
to phrase this: is it HRW's job to select leaders?
After
the
UN in
Geneva released a statement on Libya quoting Ban's key Moon-lighting
envoy Al Khatib that the TNC has asked for some UN help to sell oil,
no clarification was given.
Khatib, Ban & (Deputy) Spokesman:
disclosure of pass & payments not shown
Inner City
Press asked Ban's spokesman
Martin Nesirky, who claimed that the issue had been addressed when Al
Khatib visited the UN on April 4. But the question was about an April
6 UN statement.
Meanwhile,
Inner
City
Press asked the Philippines Permanent Representative to the UN
how much Filipinos remain in Libya. Five hundred, he said, mostly
nurses, in both Tripoli and Benghazi. They are on both sides. Watch
this site.
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