UNITED
NATIONS, March
18 -- When
buzz began on
March 18 of
the US
ordering Syria
to close its
embassy in
Washington and
consulates in
Houston and
Troy,
Michigan,
Inner City
Press sought
confirmation,
and then
explanation.
The first of
these came,
among with
some comments,
even before the
State Department
released a
statement by
new envoy on
Syria Daniel
Rubinstein.
At the UN's
March 18 noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Stephane
Dujarric for
Ban's or the
UN's view of
this closing
of diplomatic
facilities.
Dujarric said
Ban stands
behind his
position.
Inner City
Press asked,
how does that
apply to
today's closings.
Really, what
IS Ban's
position.
That's all I
have, Dujarric
said. It felt
like a Samuel
Beckett play.
Back at the UN
Security
Council
stakeout,
Inner City Press
asked Sylvie
Lucas of
Luxembourg,
Council
president for
March, if the
closings had
come up in the
Council's
consultations
on the Middle
East. No, she
said.
In the
afternoon in
Washington at
a State
Department
"Town Hall" by
John Kerry,
moderated by
Mariam Elder
of BuzzFeed,
with the
accompanying hashtag #StateWorksForUs, the topic arose.
Kerry said the
closures were
ordered
because Assad
killed his own
people. Some
wondered: and
didn't Sri
Lanka, too?
After Kerry
left -- there
were no
questions on
Kosovo, or
apparently on
NSA spying
-- another
participant
asked, Why
were the closures
done today?
Mr. Tillemann
referred the
question to someone
else, who
never
answered, at
least on-camera.
So, one wag
wondered, was
it to give Robert
Ford's replacement
Daniel
Rubinstein
something to
announce early
on? Or because
the Assad
government was
making gains
militarily?
And again: why
not Sri Lanka?
On March 14,
the UN hyped
up Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
Syria briefing
to the General
Assembly, and
then didn't
televise any
of it, nor the
reply by
Syrian
Ambassadar
Bashar
Ja'afari.
Ja'afari
came
out to the
stakeout and
criticized the
blackout, and
Ban Ki-Moon
and his envoy
Lakhdar
Brahimi for
offering "no
hint of
terrorism."
Soon
some at the
stakeout tried
to cut in, as
they wouldn't
with Ban
Ki-moon. Video
here, from
Minute 6:23.
Ja'afari told
them if they
wanted to
leave, they
could. He
denounced
Saudi Arabia,
perhaps
pointedly at
one of the
interveners.
Ironically,
later
on March 14
the Syrian
Coalition was
given a long,
uninterrupted
press
conference not
at a stakeout
that any UN
journalist
could attend,
but in the
United Nations
Correspondents
Association
clubhouse,
a room the UN
gives to Gulf
and Western
journalists. See
this debate.
Before
the cut-off
attempts,
Ja'afari
alleged that
Qatar paid
millions of
dollars to Al
Nusra for the
released of
the Ma'aloula
nuns, in
violations of
a recent
Security
Council
resolution on
the topic. He
spoke against
unilateral
sanctions,
saying they
are only
supported by
the US "and
the Marshall
Islands, or
Kiribati."
Previously,
Ja'afari
was cut off
UNTV, when
Stephane
Dujarric was
in charge of
it. Click here
for that.
Now, Dujarric
is Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman, and
suddenly the
Syrian
National
Coalition,
unlike in
September, is
back
in the UNCA
club.
Meanwhile
questions
Inner City
Press sent to
Duarric, not
only about
Nigeria
and UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous but
also about the
apparently
disappearing
of UN video,
have gone
unanswered.
This is the
new UN. Watch
this site.
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