Brahimi
on Syria at GA
Says Little,
Tightly
Controlled,
Lower
Expectations
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 4 --
When Lakhdar
Brahimi first
accepted the
post
of envoy to
Syria, he did
a round of
interviews
from his Paris
apartment,
resulting in
arguments back
and forth with
the Syrian
National
Council. Then
he went
silent.
Brahimi's
silence
continued for
nearly a week
at the UN in
New York. In
the
North Lawn
building,
guards kept
the media away
from him --
Inner
City Press
described the
scene without
joining it --
and even his
spokesman
Ahmad Fawzi
asked not to
be quoted by
name.
Then
on September
1, at the
beginning of a
three day
weekend in New
York,
Brahimi did
another round
of interviews,
this time much
more
controlled.
The message of
each interview
was, not
surprisingly,
nearly exactly
the same, as
were the
headlines:
Mission
Impossible,
Mission
Impossible II,
Brahimi Is
Scared.
So
when Brahimi
was scheduled
to speak in
the General
Assembly on
September 4,
people
expected to
hear something
of substance,
and that
he would takes
questions from
the press
corps
afterward.
On
September 3,
after
Brahimi's
appearances,
Syria's
Information
Minister Omran
al Zoebi said
there would be
no dialogue
with the
opposition
until the
Syrian army
imposes
"security and
stability
on all parts
of the
country."
Some thought
Brahimi would
want to
respond to
that, or to
whether he
would go to
Syria openly
representing
the Arab
League, or
only the UN.
Inside
the
General
Assembly,
Brahimi's
speech was
five
paragraphs and
said
very little.
And afterward,
after Syria,
Lebanon and
Israel trades
rights of
reply, Brahimi
did not come
to speak at
the UN TV
stakeout
that had been
waiting for
more than two
hours.
"He is not
comfortable,"
one Ambassador
told Inner
City Press,
shrugging.
Good luck.
Outside
the
GA, Inner City
Press asked
Ambassador
what they
thought.
Algeria's
Permanent
Representative,
heading the
Group of 77
and China
(a post that
Fiji, in the
Asia group, is
running for)
told Inner
City
Press that
Brahimi is
cautious
because he
does not want
to "engage
in polemics."
China's
Li
Baodong
exclusively
told Inner
City Press
that when
Brahimi goes
to Damascus,
he should be
shown respect
-- that is,
Assad should
meet
with him.
We'll see.
Watch this
site.
, 
