For
2-Day Syria
Superbowl,
Ja'afari On
Right to
Reply,
Reclusive
Brahimi, Seats
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 28 --
Syria remained
the focus of
most in the
UN's North
Lawn building
on Tuesday
afternoon.
Inner City
Press observed
Syrian
Permanent
Representative
Bashar
Ja'afari going
into a meeting
at 3:30, and
exiting at
4:15.
He used
different
doors,
however, than
those used by
new Joint
Special
Representative
Lakhdar
Brahimi and
his bodyguard.
"He
is trying to
avoid you,"
Ja'afari
joked, of
Brahimi's
genial sleight
of door. Last
Friday Brahimi
was trailed
like a rock
star on a
different
route.
Some wondered
if Brahimi was
in the office
of the
President of
the General
Assembly. The
PGA, however,
is in Tehran
for the
Non-Aligned
Movement
meeting, Inner
City Press has
learned.
Inner
City Press
asked
Ja'afari, to
make sure,
will you be
speaking at
Thursday's
Security
Council
meeting under
the right of
reply?
"Of
course,"
Ja'afari said.
"We always
have that
right."
And
Gerard Araud
of France,
Council
president for
three more
days, told
Inner City
Press same
thing, of
course Syria
can speak at
Thursday's
session.
Four
non-Council
members will
also be
speaking, or
briefing, on
humanitarian
issues: Turkey
and Jordan,
Iraq and
Lebanon. There
is as noted a
fifth neighbor
-- but it's
been pointed
out (not by
them) that
they do not
take refugees.
Regarding
the August 29
informal
meeting the
question
remains, one
trade or scalp
the tickets
for the UN's
biggest
show?
The Council
will meet with
Brahimi,
but it will
not be in the
Council
chamber or its
consultations
room. It will
be in a
smaller room
in the
Department of
Political
Affairs, in
the UN's North
Lawn building.
On
August 27,
before heading
to Iran, DPA
chief Jeffrey
Feltman wrote
to this
month's
Council
president
Gerard Araud
of France,
inviting the
Security
Council member
to a meeting
with Brahimi
"in NL 2062."
Inner
City Press has
obtained a
copy of the
letter, and
now
exclusively
puts it online
here.
Feltman
wrote,
"Due to
limited space,
participation
will be
limited to one
principal and
plus [sic] one
adviser."
Araud,
of course,
already met
with Brahimi
in the North
Lawn on
Friday, August
24. But what
about the
others? US
Ambassador
Susan Rice
gave a speech
on August 28
in India, but
is expected
back in New
York for this
push on Syria.
Who would be
the two from
the US
Mission?
Council
members
not only like
France and the
UK but also
Morocco and
Colombia are
sending their
foreign
ministers. If
they arrive by
Wednesday
afternoon,
would the
Permanent
Representatives
become their
advisers?
Morocco
recently
failed in its
bid to get Ban
Ki-moon to
oust his envoy
on Western
Sahara,
Christopher
Ross. Ban will
be in Iran
during these
meetings,
leaving his
Deputy Jan
Eliasson
behind.
The
UK's Mark
Lyall Grant
has been away,
as has
Portugal's
Ambassador
Cabral.
China's Li
Baodong is
expected back;
Deputy Wang
has handled
the file in
his absence.
Would he be
the adviser?
Or
might
Feltman's
rules be bent?
Watch this
site.
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