At
UN
on Eve of
Election,
Azeri Lunch
and Latin
Grumbles,
Mauritania
Gets Ready
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 20 --
On the eve of
elections for
the UN
Security
Council,
Azerbaijan
hosted a lunch
in the UN's
Delegates
Dining Room,
giving out
crystal tea
glasses and a
12-page
pamphlet
touting its
contribution
of
peacekeepers
to "Kosovo
(KFOR),
Afghanistan
(ISAF) and
Iraq."
Some
noticed that
none of these
were UN
Peacekeeping
missions as
such, but
rather NATO,
whose KFOR
troops are
clashing with
Kosovo Serbs
and
dismantling
their border
posts.
Nevertheless
Russian
Permanent
Representative
Vitaly Churkin
attended the
Azeri lunch,
as did the US'
Rosemary
DiCarlo,
diametrically
opposed on
Kosovo and
KFOR.
Azerbaijan
is
facing off
with Hungary
and Slovenia
for the single
Eastern
European
group seat on
the Security
Council for
2012-13. Back
in June, Inner
City Press interviewed
Azeri foreign
minister Elmar
Mammadyarov,
who
argued that
Hungary and
Slovenia would
be bound,
under EU
rules, to
follow the
same policies
as France and
the UK - click
here for
that.
At
the Azerbaijan
event, a
well-placed
Latin American
Permanent
Representative
told
Inner City
Press that
Guatemala is
running
unopposed
because of a
series of
deals leading
to a set line
up of who will
get the seat
"until 2024."
But, the
Permanent
Representative
said, the
deals are
often broken
because "the
big countries
don't want to
wait ten
years."
Pakistan is
understood to
have received
written
commitments
sufficient to
guarantee
victory over
Kyrgyzstan.
But, a
Pakistan
diplomat
cautioned
using the term
"cautiously
optimistic,"
it is a secret
ballot.
Azeris
in GA, back in
the day, Oct
21, 2011 vote
not shown (c)
UN Photo
Meanwhile
at an
event
simultaneous
with Morocco's
get-out-the-vote
reception
Wednesday
night, a close
observer told
Inner City
Press that
Morocco
had "dissed"
the African
Union by
running for
the Africa
Group seat
against AU
endorsed
Mauritania.
But,
the source
said, the AU
is now
under-funded
after the fall
-- now death
-- of
Gaddafi in
Libya, and is
not fighting
back. He
described an
AU event
in Uganda not
long ago with
signs from the
airport to
Kampala
saying,
"The Ugandan
People Thanks
Col. Gaddafi."
Now
that funding
is
gone. Morocco
held its
reception at
the Waldorff
Astoria Hotel;
Mauritania is
getting ready
for its event
in the UN
Delegates
Dining
Room, which is
an area of the
UN cafeteria
set apart by
black
curtains. Togo held its
event there
earlier in the
week.
Either Togo
or Mauritania
seems to many
to be destined
to lose: but
which one?
Watch this
site.
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