At
UN on Syria,
"Differences
of Approach,"
Kofi's Box of
Consultants
Contains
Michel &
Others,
Guehenno
Confirmed
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 20,
updated -- As
on Syria UN
Security
Council Permanent
Representatives,
or most of
them, gathered
at the Council
on Tuesday
afternoon,
India's
Hardeep Singh
Puri told the
Press there
were
"differences
of approach"
on the pending
Presidential
Statement.
When France's
Gerard Araud
was
asked what the
difference
are, he told
the press to
"guess."
South
Africa's
Permanent
Representative
Baso Sangqu
told Inner
City Press
that "this
mandate was a
mandate of the
General
Assembly, now
the Security
Council want
to take it
over." He
said, "it's
not balanced,
Kofi Annan is
engaging the
government but
also engaged
with the
opposition."
Update
of 5:30 pm
-- when the
meeting broke
up, French
ambassador
Araud told the
press that new
drafts of the
Presidential
and Press
Statements
will be
circulated,
with a silence
procedure
running to 9
am on March
21. If no one
objects, they
can be adopted
and read out
at 10 am,
another
diplomat said.
We'll see -
watch this
site.
At
Tuesday's UN
noon briefing,
Ban Ki-moon's
Deputy
Spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey
belated
answered some
of Inner City
Press'
questions,
specifying
that
Alan Doss, who
left the UN
amid a
nepotism
scandal but
then
reappeared
with Kofi
Annan in Cairo
and Damascus,
is no longer
with
the Mission.
Del Buey would
not answer,
however, on
the status of
former UN
chief legal
officer
Nicholas
Michel, who
left the UN
amid his own
scandal.
Tuesday
afternoon
just before
the Council
began meeting
at 3 pm, Inner
City Press
spoke
with another
former UN
official Ahmad
Fawzi, as the
spokesman for
the
Joint Special
Envoy. He
confirmed that
Deputy Nasser
al Kidwa
cannot
go to Syria
due to his
identification
with the Arab
League. Kidwa
is
in Geneva,
where now
fellow deputy
Jean Marie
Guehenno
arrived today.
After Fawzi
said it had
already been
announced, the
UN in New York
at 3:40 pm
said Guehenno
is a co-deputy
with Al Kidwa.
Fawzi
told Inner
City Press
there are two
political
officers from
the Department
of
Political
Affairs,
former UN-er
Lamine Sisse
as chief of
staff, and
two
secretaries,
one from the
Palais where
the operation
is based.
Nicholas
Michel,
it emerges, is
an a "box" of
consultants.
There are
others
in the box,
who will be
disclosed as
they are used,
Fawzi told
Inner
City Press,
while taking
as a question,
one hope for
answer soon,
whether the
Kofi Annan
Foundation has
in the past
three years
solicited
funds from
Qatar, Saudi
Arabia or the
UAE, or
government-affiliated
businesses or
businesspeople
in these
states.
It's a start.
Watch this
site.
, 
