Ambassador
Rice Tells ICP
Mali Is
"Moving
Target,"
Might Need
Subsequent
Steps
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 19 --
The day before
France said a
Mali
resolution
would be voted
on by the UN
Security
Council,
still no final
"blue"
draft for
voting has
been
circulated.
An African
diplomat told
Inner
City Press at
noon on
Wednesday that
"now it's
bilat[eral]s
between France
and the US,
with an
Algerian
element thrown
in."
Inner
City Press
asked US
Ambassador
Rice if it
would be
accurate to
report
that's now at
the stage of
bilateral
meetings
between the US
and
France. She
stopped and
asked, what's
the real
question?
Given
this chance,
Inner City
Press asked if
the US would
agree, as
France
wants, to a
single
resolution
providing the
full support
package for
ECOWAS to
support the
current Malian
authorities to
reconquer
Northern Mali.
(Significantly,
the current
Malian
authorities
may
include Sanogo
and others
involved in
the coups
d'etat).
Ambassador
Rice said, we
are
negotiating
the current
resolution,
and that
doesn't mean
there won't be
a need for
subsequent
steps, "it's a
moving
target." She
said the US is
working well
with France
and
others.
The
day previous
on December
18, when Inner
City Press
asked the
shorter
version of the
question, Inner
City Press
asked
Ambassador
Rice said, "It's
being
negotiated,"
she replied.
Inner City
Press asked,
vote this
week, Friday?
Ambassador
Rice, said,
"If it's
ready."
Back
on December
12, Inner City
Press asked US
Ambassador
Susan Rice
about Mali:
Inner
City Press:
One quick
question on
Mali. This
resignation,
or forced
resignation,
of the Prime
Minister that
took place
earlier this
week -- does
it change the
U.S.'s
thinking at
all on how the
Council should
proceed in
terms of
authorizing a
force to
reclaim
Northern Mali?
Ambassador
Rice:
Well, as you,
Mali has been
and remains a
very complex
situation and
from the
United States'
point of view
we have
multiple
parallel
interests and
objectives,
one of which,
is the
swiftest
possible
restoration of
democratic
government in
Bamako. And
indeed, what
has transpired
over the last
few days is
yet another
setback in
that regard.
But we also
are very much
committed to
collective
effort, to
ensure that
there is not
an enduring
safe haven for
terrorists in
the north of
Mali. And the
Security
Council
resolution
that is under
discussion is
yet another in
a progression
of potential
actions and
some obviously
prior actions
that we are
working on to
address, in
particular,
the challenge
of restoring
sovereignty
and
territorial
integrity and
ridding
terrorists
from the north
of Mali. So
we’ll continue
to work with
that interest
at heart.
Watch
this site.
, 
