On
Syria, China
Supports
Rollover, UK
Wants to Hear,
Russia Is Not
Igor
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 11,
updated -- As
Ambassadors
filed into the
UN Security
Council
to hear envoy
Kofi Annan's
briefing about
Syria late
Wednesday
morning, it
was the draft
resolution
Russia
circulated on
Tuesday
that drove the
questioning.
Inner
City
Press asked
French
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud,
"Any
views of the
Russian
draft?"
Araud
said,
"No, no
views." It is
expected that
France and
others
will
counter-circulate
their own
draft, which
unlike the
Russians'
will be under
UN Charter
Chapter 7.
UK
Permanent
Representative
Mark Lyall
Grant said it
made no sense
to
talk yet about
rolling over
the mandate
until Annan's
briefs the
Council on the
"wider plan."
China's
Permanent
Representative
Li Baodong, on
the other
hand, said "We
will
support the
rollover" of
the mandate of
the mission,
UNSMIS.
Inner
City
Press asked
Russia's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Sasha
Pankin if
there had been
any direct
responses to
his country's
draft. Mostly
what you got,
he replied,
referring to US
Ambassador
Susan
Rice's
exclusive
quote to
Inner City
Press on
Tuesday, that
the
Russian draft
is
"insufficient."
Pankin
noted that
his name is
NOT "Igor," as
he was
identified
citing AFP on
a site
overseen by
the US
Broadcasting
Board of
Governors,
which also
oversees Voice
of America....
Update:
here from a
friend on
Inenr City
Press are fast
type-ups:
German
Ambassador
Wittig:
..with
the briefing
of Kofi Annan,
we will hear
his briefing,
hear about his
trip to the
region, to
Damascus, here
about the next
steps he
envisages,
it’s important
not just to
focus on the
future of
UNSMIS in
isolation but
we have to see
the broader
picture.
For us it’s
very important
to include
compliance
with our
discussions
that we have
taken so
far.
Compliance for
the six point
plan and
compliance for
our
resolutions.
The use of
heavy weapons
has to be also
very much at
the enter of
our
deliberations.
That is I
think the
framework in
which we will
be
discussing.
So
do you have
the Russian
draft?
We’ve
read it, first
of all, we
think and then
we will
discuss
texts.
First of all
we think to
focus just on
UNSMIN in
isolation we
want
compliance
with the
decisions of
the Security
Council.
We want to see
the stop of
heavy weapons
and we’ll use
our toolbox.
UK
Ambassador
Mark Lyall
Grant
Well, the
Russian
draft
really is
slightly
beside the
point.
Because UNSMIS
mission was
set up with
two
purposes.
It was to
oversee the
cessation of
violence
secondly it
was to monitor
implementation
of Annan’s six
point plan. It
hasn’t been
able to do
either of
those
tasks.
SO the
question of
the rollover
doesn’t really
apply until
will know what
the wider
context and
is. In
that wider
context what
the future
role of UNSMIS
may be.
We should be
focusing in
the SC today
on that wider
plan.
That’s what we
want to hear
from Mr. Kofi
Annan today.
Propose
a counter
draft?
Well, I expect
so but we will
have the
courtesy to
listen to Mr.
Annan’s
briefing
before we
circulate a
draft.
Do
you have a
draft
ready?
Of course we
have some
number of
drafts
ready.
But we’ll
consider
exactly which
text to
circulate in
the light of
Mr. Annan’s
briefing.
, 
