At
UN,
Amid Libya & Sudan Fights, Farewell to UK's Quarrey, France Now
Dean of UNSC Coordinators
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 21 -- How the UN Security Council functions, and
doesn't, was on display Tuesday, amid a farewell to the UK's
political coordinator David Quarrey as well as news of who will
replace Loraine Sievers in Security Council Affairs.
It
was only in mid-May
that Russia's political coordinator Vladimir
Safronkov passed on to
Quarrey the silver cup meant for the dean of Security Council
political coordinators. Click here for Inner City Press' exclusive
report.
Now it will
go to France, whose Permanent
Representative was in attendance as well, as well as his counterpart
from Lebanon. Russia's political coordinator, who just began, joked
that he may never get it.
Without
breaching
any, or many, diplomatic secrets, we can report that UK Permanent
Representative Mark Lyall Grant is a lifelong fan of the West Ham
football club -- or at least since the 1970s, where they were “the
most violent club” according to one reception attendee.
Closer
to the work
of the Council, an attendee at both consultations Tuesday afternoon
told Inner City Press that “even the US” knows that recognition
of the Libyan rebels in Benghazi will not be in any Council
presidential statement, and was “engaging.”
So too on the
Sudan
PRST, on which Sudan's Permanent Representative told Inner City Press
earlier on Tuesday that “two paragraphs have to go, or the
relations between Sudan and the UN will be changed.”
As
a warm roast to
Quarrey, it was recalled that his first intervention in the Council
was to ask when a certain UN Mission would be discussed. When asked
what the mission *was,* Quarrey answered honestly that he didn't not
know, his expert had asked him to raise it.
Norma Chan
said she
respected that. Her successor, present Tuesday night, said he earlier
that day sent out notice of Loraine's replacement, and disagreed with
Inner City Press that her successor has being sent notices about
July's work before today's announcement. We stand to be corrected --
or not.
Quarrey
is getting
promoted to the UK's new version of the US national security
apparatus. In light of Tuesday's quote by David Cameron that he
wished the generals would fight and he speak, Quarrey and the
agency's role seems to be to convey the speeches to the fighters. We
wish him luck.
* * *
As
UNSC
Eyes
Sudan, Martin & Johnson Vie, Vladimir Safronkov Hands Cup
to UK's Quarrey
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May
16 -- As the UN
Security Council prepares to travel to
Sudan, albeit not to Darfur, the question arose Monday of who will
replace Haile Menkerios atop the UN Mission in Sudan.
Sources
tell
Inner
City Press that at least two current UN officials wants the post:
Hilde Johnson of UNICEF, and Ian Martin of the Department of
Political Affairs, only recently tapped for post-transition (or
post-Gaddafi) Libya.
The
question arose
at a reception at the Russian Mission to the UN, a farewell to
Vladimir K. Safronkov, Russia's political coordinator. It was a good
turn out, including among other DPA chief Lynn Pascoe, UK Permanent
Representative Mark Lyall Grant and US Deputy Permanent
Representative Rosemary DiCarlo.
The
ceremonial
highlight of the evening was the passing of the torch, or the “cup
of dean of P-5 political coordinators,” to David Quarrey of the UK. He
joked that he will only hold it for six week, then pass it on to
France. From there it will go to China.
At
the back,
political coordinators from non Permanent Security Council members
groused about not being in line for the cup, about Sudan, Libya and
Cote d'Ivoire.
One
asked
Inner
City Press, what's up with Alain Le Roy? Well placed UN sources tell
Inner City Press he will be replaced, by another Frenchman, who's
already been selected. The question, then, is Pascoe, or maybe Angela
Kane.
Vladimir with hands crossed: he will be missed
Vladimir,
who
is returning to Moscow to work on multilateral diplomacy and
international organizations, has been
well-liked in the UN. Inner City Press can speak highly of him as far
away as a tarmac in Goma in the Congo, calming other ambassadors down
after their plane was shot, from the inside.
As
of Monday
evening, the logistics of the Council's upcoming trip were still not
set. Le Roy's Department of Peacekeeping Operations is to briefing
them on Tuesday afternoon; for now they will land at Kadugli on their
way to Abyei. Ahmed Haroun, the ICC indictee who Menkerios has
insisted on flying, will not meet with them. And so it goes at the
UN. Watch this site.
, 
