After
Israeli
Strike, Syria
Says No
Meeting
Requested,
Media Reports
False
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 1 --
What is and
will be
Syria's
reaction to
Israel's
January 30
airstrike? On
the morning of
January 31
Syria's
Permanent
Representative
to the UN
Bashar
Ja'afari came
to the
Security
Council which
was holding a
closed meeting
on the past
month's work.
Ja'afari
told
Inner City
Press his
government had
filed
"identical
letters" with
the Council
and Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, click
here to view,
but that the
letter(s) did
not ask for a
Security
Council
meeting.
At
noon in the
UN's Dag
Hammarskjold
Library
Auditorium,
after a
briefing by
Ban's deputy
spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey that a
back-row
observer
called
"comical," video
here,
outgoing
Security
Council
president
Masood Khan of
Pakistan said
that Syria's
letter, still
being
translated,
did not ask
for a Council
meeting.
Nevertheless,
some
media reported
that it did,
even at least
one present
for the first
if not second
of the UN's
noon-time
briefings: "Syria
calls on UN to
hold a
Security
Council
meeting."
One wonders,
where did that
call take
place? Not by
Syria at the
UN.
Seven
hours later at
Pakistan's End
of Presidency
reception,
Ja'afari told
Inner City
Press more
about the
letter. (Inner
City Press
has uploaded a
photo of the
letter, in
Arabic, here.)
By not calling
for a meeting
but rather
that the
Council
shoulder its
responsibilities,
Ja'afari said,
and address
the tensions,
a military
response could
be expected.
Amid
the
reception's
three
speeches, a
Council
diplomat
elbowed Inner
City Press and
said, Look
around the
room, where is
Ja'afari, it
could be a
long month for
South Korea.
The
Republic of
Korea had that
afternoon
moved
equipment and
even a tea
maker into the
Security
Council suite.
And now their
month begins.
Watch this
site.
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