At
UN,
Rice on Kofi
&
Sanctions,
Syria Monitors
in Hotels,
Sudan Deadline
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 16 --
What does Kofi
want? That was
the question
hanging over
the UN
Security
Council
meeting on
Syria on
Monday.
US
Ambassador
Rice said it
is clear from
envoy Kofi
Annan's letter
on
July 13 about
the killings
at Tremseh
that he wants
he "wants
there to be
consequences
for
non-compliance"
with his six
point
plan. She
cited
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's July
13 letter on
Tremseh as
well.
But
when
Inner City
Press asked
Russian
Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin
about
these letter,
he was
critical.
Inner
City
Press: Ban
Ki-moon and
Kofi Annan's
letters about
Tremseh, were
they accurate
at the time?
Should they be
updated?
Amb.
Churkin:
I don't think
so. There is
new,
disturbing
information.
One
reason for the
monitoring
mission to
stay is that
we need
objective
information
about events.
Of course,
their
resources are
limited, but
at least they
are on the
ground. We
believe they
can deter some
things, and if
horrible
things do
happen, they
will be able
to tell
us what they
believe has
happened,
because this
is a situation
where
various
horrors are
taking place,
unfortunately,
and various
provocations
are happening,
various people
are
interpreting
what is
happening in
the wrong way.
Rice
said
it would be
"immoral" to
keep the
monitors in
Syria,
even in their
hotel rooms,
if the
Security
Council is
unwilling to
back them up
with the
threat of
sanctions.
Of
sanctions,
she said the
"UK has tables
a resolution
which we
strongly
support" which
would "make it
clear that
Geneva
outcome now
under Chapter
Seven."
Earlier,
Churkin had
emphasized
that the use
of Chapter
Seven had NOT
been agreed at
the
talks in
Geneva.
But
another
side, speaking
off the
record, said
that nine of
the 11 at
Geneva had
favored
Chapter Seven,
and even
snarked that
Russian
foreign
minister
Sergey Lavrov
had used as
his reason for
opposition
in Geneva that
it was up to
the Security
Council to
invoke Chapter
Seven -- but
now, Russia
uses Lavrov's
refusal to
agree in
Geneva as
the reason to
not agree in
the Security
Council. Head
spinning.
As
the
last P5
Ambassador out
of the
Council,
France's
Gerard Araud
stopped and
told the
press, "our
draft is
negotiable"
but
must have
Chapter 7 in.
He said
dismissively,
"no one is
raising
the Russian
draft." And so
it goes.
Footnotes:
Inner
City Press
asked, and
Ambassador
Rice stopped
and answer,
not
only Syria but
Sudan: will
Juba and
Khartoum be
able to meet
the
August 2
deadline?
Ambassador
Rice said that
is a "lot to
get
done in a
short period
of time...
they ought
to."
As
reported
last week,
well placed
sources tell
Inner City
Press South
Sudan will be
opposing any
extension
beyond August
2, even if
Thabo
Mbeki asks for
it; South
Sudan has in
mind taking
the border
issues
to the
International
Court of
Justice in
The Hague.
Finally,
the US
Mission's and
Ambassador
Rice's new
lead
spokesperson
Eric Pelton
was
present at
Monday's
meeting,
although
didn't yet
take up the
Press
suggested
"first scrum."
As Inner City
Press reported
last
week, Mark
Kornblau is
going from the
frying pan of
USUN to the
fire
of JPMorgan
Chase, in
the middle of
the LIBOR
scandal. We'll
have
more on all
this.
, 
