After
Latin Pushback
& BRICS,
Saudi Dropped
Sanctions
& Assad
Leaving
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Partial
exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 2 --
Major pushback
met Saudi
Arabia the day
after it
presented a
draft General
Assembly
resolution on
Syria urging
sanctions and
Bashar al
Assad to step
down.
Beyond the
July 31
opposition by
BRICSA --
Brazil,
Russia, India,
China and
South Africa
-- on which
Inner City
Press first
reported, we
can now reveal
the
surprisingly
united
position on
August 1 of
the Latin
American &
Caribbean
Group, GRULAC.
In a
meeting in
closed
Conference
Room 10, not
only the
leftist
countries in
the ALBA
formation but
the other
GRULAC members
told Saudi
Arabia that
its draft
wouldn't fly.
The
philosophic
underpinning
of the
opposition is
not only that
the General
Assembly
shouldn't be
asked to call
for "regime
change" in a
country among
the early
founders of
the UN.
Also, Saudi
Arabia was
told,
unilateral
sanctions like
those of the
Arab League
are not
celebrated by
many in the
General
Assembly.
And so both
provisions
were dropped.
Before the
amendment,
even Western
diplomats were
predicting
vote counts as
low as 70 for
the initial
Saudi
version.
Now, asked by
Inner City
Press if the
peak of 137
votes could be
reached, a
proponent of
the resolution
quipped,
"Could be, if
there is
another
massacre
reported."
Absent that,
he predicted
less that 137.
It is
understood
that the UK
advised Saudi
Arabia not to
even include
these in its
first draft.
The position
of France,
which hosted a
July 30
meeting about
the GA draft,
is less clear.
Various Arab
diplomats,
learning of
the venue of
the July 30
meeting,
expressed
anger that the
Arab Group
would "put
itself under
France's
wing," as one
put it to
Inner City
Press.
It was
recounted
that, until he
quit to take a
job with the
French
government,
Kofi Annan's
deputy Jean
Marie Guehenno
claimed to
Arab leaders
that he,
Guehenno,
spoke for the
Arab League.
The response
was, Oh,
really?
The new draft,
which Inner
City Press
obtained from
a well placed
member state
after 5 pm on
August 1, is
now set for
voting August
3 at 11 am.
Inner City
Press is
putting the
draft online
here.
Most
contentious in
the previous
draft,
opponents
said, was the
last
perambular
paragraph
"welcoming
the
relevant
League of Arab
States’
decisions,
including its
22 July 2012
resolution, in
particular its
appeal to the
Syrian
President to
step down from
power."
Now that language
is gone. An
opponent late
Wednesday
exclusive also
told Inner
City Press,
they're afraid
of us. They'd
also pointed
to operative
paragraphs 20
and 21, which
called on
countries to
adopt
sanctions like
the Arab
League. That
too is gone.
Saudi
Arabia has
been opposed
on sanctions
and "regime
change" by,
among others,
BRICSA --
Brazil,
Russia, India,
China and
South Africa
-- and some
Latin American
countries.
Still in
however is
Paragraph 20, which
a non-BRICSA
diplomat told
Inner City
Press, is
"disrespectful"
to Kofi Annan,
directing him
to "focus his
efforts."
One
BRICSA
representative
after Tuesday
meeting said
that Saudi
Arabia put
these in so as
to negotiate.
It looks like
they were
right.
But since
Saudi Arabia,
like Qatar, is
already giving
weapons to the
opposition,
adopting a
resolution
even like this
could be seen
to provide a
further
pretext. Watch
this site.
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