After
Damascus
Bombings,
Annan Asks
Delay, UK
"Considers" -
or
Lyall Grants?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 18,
updated --
Hours before
the Security
Council's
scheduled
vote on, and
probably veto
of, the UK
tabled Syria
resolution
under
Chapter Seven,
in Damascus
the Assad
government's
defense
minister
and Assad's
own brother in
law were
killed in by a
45 kilogram
TNT and C-4
bomb,
according to
the Free
Syrian Army.
(Liwa al-Islam
also claimed
credit, saying
on Facebook no
less that the
"so-called
crisis
management
cell in the
capital
Damascus was
targeted by
explosion
device by the
Master of
Martyrs
battalion
Brigade of
Islam.")
This
led
immediately to
dueling
statements
from Permanent
Five members
of
the Security
Council,
making a veto
even more
certain.
UK foreign
minister
William Hague
jumped in:
"This
incident,
which we
condemn,
confirms the
urgent need
for a Chapter
VII resolution
of the
UN Security
Council on
Syria."
Russian
foreign
minster Sergey
Lavrov said,
"Adopting a
resolution
against this
backdrop would
amount to a
direct support
for the
revolutionary
movement. If
we are talking
about a
revolution
then the U.N.
Security
Council has no
place in
this."
Seeming
to react to
that, envoy
Kofi Annan
asked for a
delay in the
voting, which
the UK
quickly said
it would
"consider."
Inner City
Press reads
this as
"grant," as in
Mark Lyall
Grant.
But
what
can happened,
between now
and the Friday
(or some say
Saturday)
expiration of
the mandate of
the UNSMIS
mission? Could
the resolution
be redraft?
Given the
Security
Council's
usual reaction
to
"terrorist"
attacks, might
Russia asked
for one? Watch
this
site.
Update
of 11:26 am --
on his way
into the
Security
Council, Li
Baodong of
China told the
Press that
what happened
in Damascus
was
"terrorist."
Said there's a
meeting of the
five Permanent
Members of the
Security
Council.
Another
non-Western
Security
Council member
asked Inner
City Press, "So
this
bombing was
done by
defenseless
people?"
Update
of 12:25 pm --
Araud
of
France emerged
and announced
to the press::
vote tomorrow
at 10 am. He's
asked, Did
Russia
negotiate?
"No,"
Araud
said. US
Ambassador
Susan Rice is
asked, do you
expect
anything new
from
Russia? "No,"
she says.
Update
of 1 pm -- a
good source
exclusively
tells Inner
City Press of
a Permanent
Five meeting
this
afternoon. It
ain't over
until it's
over?
, 
