As
France
Met With UN
Council, "Not
a Word About
Syria,"
Churkin Tells
Press
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 1 --
In Paris on
November 29,
French Foreign
Minister Alain
Juppe said, "I
have also
instructed our
permanent
representative
to start
consultations
at the heart
of (the UN
Security)
Council. The
idea is to
give the
Syrian regime
an ultimatum
so that it
meets its
international
obligations to
allow access
to
humanitarian
aid."
On
December 1
when
each Security
Council member
met with the
Council
president for
the
coming month,
Russia's
Permanent
Representative
Vitaly
Churkin, Inner
City Press
asked a number
of Ambassadors
about Juppe's
statement and
about the
humanitarian
corridors from
Turkey and
Lebanon which
he
proposed.
Lebanon's
Permanent
Representative
Nawaf Salam,
from whose
country such a
corridor would
run, told
Inner City
Press that
"the French
did
not raise it
with us."
Inner
City Press
asked French
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud
about the
bilateral
meeting he'd
had with
Vitaly
Churkin.
"There was
nothing
special,"
Araud said.
Inner City
Press asked,
did you
ask for
consultations
about
humanitarian
corridors?
"No, no,"
Araud said
(although in
fairness it
was not clear
if this was a
direct
response about
corridors or a
more general
lack of
responsiveness.)
After
all 14
bilateral
meetings were
over, Inner
City Press
asked Russian
Permanent
Representative
Churkin, "Did
France ask for
consultations
on
humanitarian
corridors in
Syria?"
"No,"
Churkin
answered
without
hesitation. He
added, "I'll
give you a
more
general
answer: not a
single word
about Syria."
What
to make of
this
disparity,
between
Juppe's
statement and
what by all
accounts
happened, or
didn't happen,
in New York?
(c) UN Photo
Sarkozy &
Juppe in UN
corridors;
humanitarian
corridors not
shown, even in
SC bilats
Another
Council
diplomat
told Inner
City Press,
"There are
things said
for public
consumption,
but not
carried out
here." Indeed.
Watch this
site.
Footnotes:
There is a
certain
symmetry here:
back at the
beginning of May 2011,
Araud said
very publicly
and with
apparently
glee that
Churkin had,
at the
beginning of
that month in
which Araud
was the
three-stakeout-only
president,
not
raised the
issue of
Kosovo organs
trade.
That did
come up later
in France's
month of May,
and in
June --
will Juppe's
humanitarian
corridors?
Finally in
fairness we
note that on
December 1
Araud did
answer an
unrelated
Inner City
Press
question,
about when
France, which
"holds the
pen" on the DR
Congo, will
circulate any
draft
statement
about the
"chaotic"
elections
there. Araud
said that UN
envoy Meece
will brief the
Council on the
afternoon of
December 2,
and that a
draft
statement
might be
circulated
after that,
depending on
the contents
of the
briefing.
We'll see.
, 
