At
UN,
Downer
on No Fly Zone, Iran Says 2 Sided Coin, Delay Continues
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March
15 -- Amid predictions that Lebanon would on Tuesday afternoon
circulate a draft resolution on Libya, Alexander Downer answered some
Press questions
about a possible
no
fly zone on Tuesday morning after briefing the
UN Security Council about Cyprus. Downer said with a smile that the
current foreign minister (Kevin Rudd) is enthusiastic about such a no
fly zone.
Inner
City
Press
asked, Do you disagree?
Downer
said
in
essence that with the Arab League now having come out in favor of a
no fly zone, some of his past concerns had been assuaged. So now
Rudd, Downer and Prime Minister Gillard are all on the same page?
Downer has criticize Gillard for “sucking up” to Barack Obama and
his concerns about the no fly zone.
On
Tuesday morning outside the Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vitaly
Churkin declined to comment on any draft, saying "I don't have it -- do
you?" The US position was unclear. Germany was understood to want to
see Arab countries taking part in enforcing any no fly zone.
Because
a
Libyan
-- but not Gadhafi -- diplomat earlier on Tuesday told Inner City
Press that the Germans and other shouldn't be so fixed on Arab
countries enforcing a no fly zone with their planes, since “the
Arab League does not have an agreement for this” unlike the Saudis'
and UAE's agreement with Bahrain, Inner City Press asked Downer if
how heavily he'd weigh Arab involvement in enforcing such a no fly
zone.
Downer
declined
comment
on that. Later, Inner City Press asked Iran's Permanent
Representative about his country's reported opposition to a no fly
zone. He stopped and said there are “two sides to the coin.” He
said a no fly zone could be a “gateway to military intervention,”
but might “stop Gadhafi from killing.”
Gadhafi over Gillard & Rudd, Downer &
no fly zone not shown, h/t AdelaideNow
What
about
Bahrain?
Iran's Permanent Representative said “that's different.”
And at Tuesday's UN noon briefing, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's
spokesman Martin Nesirky for a second time did not answer if the UN
thinks Bahrain's use of outside security personnel from Pakistan and
Yemen is a use of mercenaries. If I have anything on that, I'll tell
you, Nesirky said. Watch this site.
Footnotes:
on
Cyprus,
Inner City Press asked Downer about the detention of two
former members of the European Parliament during a “visit to
abandoned Varosha, a fenced-off Greek Cypriot suburb of Famagusta on
the island’s east coast that is controlled by the Turkish army.”
Downer said that the fenced off status of Varosha shows the need for
the Cyprus issue to be solved.
* * *
With
UNSC
Dormant
on
Action Against Gaddafi, ICC Limits & Alternatives
Discussed
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March
9
-- Even as France and the UK prepare what they call
a “contingency” resolution for the UN Security Council to
authorize a no-fly zone over Libya, there is talk of working around
the Council, at least in pundit land.
Inner
City
Press
asked
Colombia University law profession Matthew Waxman on Wednesday
about last month's Security Council resolution, which partially
referred the case of Libya to the International Criminal Court: would
ICC members feel constrained to wait for UNSC authorization?
Would
the US-requested exemption of non-ICC members from referral to the
ICC have any impact on decision making?
Waxman
said
that
while
some “potential coalition partners might be reluctant to
participate in multi-national military operations” absent Security
Council authorization, others might be comforted by requests from the
African Union or Arab League.
He said these
are not “strictly
legally alternatives” to UNSC approval, but might “endow...
sufficient legitimacy to make states feel comfortable participating
in a no fly zone.”
Tuesday
night
at
the
UN, two Permanent Representatives on the Council told Inner City
Press there is “no appetite” for ground intervention in Libya,
and that opposition to the still vague UK and France no fly proposal
was expressed in closed door consultations of the Council earlier
that day.
Gaddafi and UN's Ban Ki-moon, action on Ambassadors
not shown
Then,
US
Secretary
of
State Hillary Clinton publicly said that it should be up
to the UNSC to authorize action. This from the same Administration
would demanded a carve out for itself from the ICC referral in the
(first) Libya resolution last month....
Footnote: the other
speaker on the CFR call on which Inner City Press questioned Waxman,
Micah Zenko, predicted that the international community will not offer
recognition to the rebels' government in Bengazi, pointing out that no
one has recognized Puntland (or Somaliland) even though more stable
that the TFG run "rest" of Somalia. At the Security Council on March
10, Somalia is the topic. Watch this site.
* * *
, 
