On
Palestine,
OIC & NAM
Cards Played,
Kosovo &
Syria Are Back
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 28
-- Still
searching for
nine votes for
Palestine
membership in
the UN, the
Non-Aligned
Movement
caucus met in
the
Security
Council
Tuesday
afternoon,
joined by
Egypt's pre-
and
post-Arab
Spring
Permanent
Representative
and the
Palestinian
delegation.
Afterward
Nestor
Osorio of
Colombia, a
NAM member
which will not
vote for
Palestinian
membership,
took the line
that bilateral
negotiations
are the only
way. Others
rolled their
eyes.
And
so Wednesday
morning at
9:30 the
application of
Palestine is
set to be
referred to
an Ad Hoc
committee made
up of the same
15 Security
Council
members.
One well
placed
diplomat
emphasized to
Inner City
Press that the
Ad
Hoc committee
can't just
"sit on" the
application,
but has
to make a
report.
"The
full
Security
Council, for
sure, can sit
on the
Palestinian
application,"
the diplomat
continued,
smiling.
While one
Permanent
Representative
told Inner
City Press
action on
Palestine
could be
expected in
two weeks,
another well
placed
European
source said
"at the very
least a
month," tying
this to the
Quartet
statement of
September 23.
There's
been a lot
of questioning
about the
positions of
three
countries:
Bosnia,
Nigeria and
Gabon. Some
say that
members of the
OIC should of
course
vote with
Palestine.
Others point
to US and
French ties
and, for the
former, to the
Republica
Srbska.
On
a somewhat
related
matter, Inner
City Press on
Tuesday
morning began
asking
diplomats
about the
tensions in
northern
Kosovo, with
seven Serbs
and
four NATO
peacekeepers
injured.
At first few
had heard of
it, and at
noon Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
answered Inner
City Press'
question about
it by saying
if he got a
statement or
"line" he'd
pass it on.
(It hasn't
happened.)
Abbas gets
ready to rock
the GA, Sept
23, 9 votes
&
Lieberman not
shown
Later
Kosovo was
put on the
Council's
agenda for
Wednesday
afternoon
along with,
not
disclosed in
the Program
sent out, the
new Syria
draft
resolution.
Apparently now
resolution "in
blue" can be
easily
superceded and
replaced: call
it "light
blue."
Wednesday
there is also
a meeting
about Counter
Terrorism and,
not in
the UN
Journal, a
consultation
of the
Permanent Five
members about
Sudan. Watch
this site.
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