UNITED
NATIONS, April
17, updated
twice --
With Lakhdar
Brahimi now in
New York to
brief the UN
Security
Council about
Syria,
Inner City
Press is told
by sources
close to him
that his
dissatisfaction
with the Arab
League,
particularly
with Qatar
and Saudi
Arabia,
goes beyond
the League
having given
the Syria seat
to the
opposition.
In
connection
with
recent Arab
League decisions,
some
say, Brahimi
was “badly
treated," or,
alternatively,
disagreed with
the League
decision to
give Syria's
seat to the
opposition,
over the
reservations
of Algeria and
Iraq and the
now-automatic
disassociation
of Lebanon.
Brahimi
didn't go to
the Arab
League summit
in Doha.
There, some
derision
was
directed at
the wider UN
for its
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
being
represented at
the summit by
Jeffrey
Feltman,
previously the
face of
American
policy in the
region. (We
hasten to say,
this is not
Feltman's
fault.)
Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon
not going to
the Arab
League summit
was “not
helpful,” they
say.
It is
also pointed
out, however,
that unlike
Kofi Annan who
quit, Brahimi
is nothing but
patient. Look
what he did in
Lebanon, one
pointed out.
He just waited
and waited,
and when they
wanted to
sign, he
(Brahimi)
looked good.
But in
Syria, after
the Al Nusra
Front spoke of
its links and
loyalty to Al
Qaeda, things
are different.
A close
observer of
the fighting
told Inner
City Press he
estimates that
half of the
effective
armed
opposition is
Al Nusra,
“hard to
unwind.” And
the opposition
outside of the
country, he
said, doesn't
control the
fighting
inside.
Inner
City Press on
Wednesday
asked Syrian
Permanent
Representative
Bashar
Ja'afari about
the Qatar,
Saudi and Arab
Group drafted
General
Assembly
resolution.
He told Inner
City Press
exclusively
that the
draft
is a
“declaration
of war,” and
that the wiser
among them is
trying to
amend it but
“it will not
fly.” He
said to watch
for his
statement on
April 18.
Watch this
site.
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