Inner City Press





In Other Media-eg New Statesman, AJE, FP, Georgia, NYTAzerbaijan, CSM Click here to contact us     .



These reports are usually available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis
,



Share |   

Follow on TWITTER
 More: InnerCityPro

MRL on Patreon

Home -

These reports are usually available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis

CONTRIBUTE

(FP Twitterati 100, 2013)

ICP on YouTube

BloggingHeads.tv
Sept 24, 2013

UN: Sri Lanka

VoA: NYCLU

FOIA Finds  

Google, Asked at UN About Censorship, Moved to Censor the Questioner, Sources Say, Blaming UN - Update - Editorial

Support this work by buying this book

Click on cover for secure site orders

also includes "Toxic Credit in the Global Inner City"
 

 

 


Community
Reinvestment

Bank Beat

Freedom of Information
 

How to Contact Us



On Syria Chemical Weapons, Trump Tweets Get Ready, Bolivia Sets UNSC Meeting, ICP Asked State

By Matthew Russell Lee, Scope, Patreon, photos

UNITED NATIONS, April 11The day after two and then a third Syria chemical weapons draft resolution failed in the UN Security Council in New York, Russia's Ambassador in Beirut told al-Manar, "if there is a strike by the Americans on Syria , then... the missiles will be downed and even the sources from which the missiles were fired." Wednesday morning before 7 am Trump fired back on Twitter, "Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia,  because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!' You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!" Now at the UN, Bolivia's Ambassador has "requested a meeting of the Security Council due to threats of unilateral use of force in Syria." It will, at least for now, be in closed consultations on April 12. On the morning of April 11 in front of the UN Security Council, Sweden's Ambassador Olof Skoog when asked said, We don't respond to tweets. He said, “Whatever happens now has to be in line with international law" - an echo of Bolivia's Ambassador's comment on April 10. French Ambassador Francois Delattre dodged on Trump's tweet, saying You're right, the weather is beautiful. He said nothing about the day's Council topic, Mali, on which France holds the pen. Nor did the UN-favored scribes present ask anything about Mali. In Washington, while Axios AM for the day didn't once mention Syria, and POLITICO Playbook mentioned it only as a US immigration issue, Inner City Press at the US State Department's April 10 briefing asked Spokesperson Heather Nauert what the US intends to do with Syria set to be president of the UN Conference on Disarmament in late May. Video here, transcript below. Nauert called it ironic but said the US hasn't yet decided what to do.


Most of the other questions in the briefing were about Syria, with references to the OPCW and the defunded JIM, the UNIMI not to be. (Inner City Press also asked about Cameroon, but that's another story - post briefing Periscope here). 
On the third draft resolution, submitted by Russia at 11 am, there were five yes votes (China, Ethiopia, Bolivia, Kazakhstan and Russia), four against (US, France, UK, Poland) and the other six abstaining. With US President Trump canceling his trip to the Summit of the Americas in Lima in order to focus on Syria, at the UN his Ambassador Nikki Haley has called for a vote at 3 pm. Western spokespeople referred to a vote on what they called an "old" Russia draft as well - and there may be a new one voted on as well. From Washington, the US issued this Trump - UK read out: "President Donald J. Trump spoke today with Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom.  Both leaders condemned Syrian President Assad’s vicious disregard for human life.  The President and Prime Minister agreed not to allow the use of chemical weapons to continue." From The Hague the OPCW issued this: "Since the first reports of alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma, Syrian Arab Republic, were issued, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has been gathering information from all available sources and analysing it. At the same time, OPCW’s Director-General, Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, has considered the deployment of a Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) team to Douma to establish facts surrounding these allegations. Today, the OPCW Technical Secretariat has requested the Syrian Arab Republic to make the necessary arrangements for such a deployment. This has coincided with a request from the Syrian Arab Republic and the Russian Federation to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma. The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly." Bolivia's Ambassador was asked if he is concerned about US taking military action. "Of course," he said. "That would be against the Charter." In Washington the State Department has a briefing at 2 pm; Trump is said to be close to a decision. Over the weekend, nine of the UN Security Council's 15 members called for a meeting about "reports of chemical weapons attack in Syria;" Russia called for a meeting on international peace and security. After the meeting and consultations, Russia's Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said, “Tomorrow is tomorrow. I am prepared for everything. Whatever happens, we leave it all to chance.” Sweden's Olof Skoog deferred to the President of the Council, Peru, whose Ambassador said, Members of the Council coincide on need for investigation conducted by OPCW. Experts working on the possibility of a resolution on the matter.” He said the experts - not at the Permanent Representative level - would work on April 10 but there was no assurance a vote would be taken at that time. Since then Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov has said to expect a new Russian draft, and President Trump "will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled. At the President’s request, the Vice President will travel in his stead. The President will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world.” On April 9 Trump with John Bolton at his left hand, after commenting on Mueller and the raid on his lawyer Michael Cohen's office, said a decision would be made soon and the press would be told, probaby after the fact. Earlier as the Security Council meetings began, at the Council stakeout the UK's Karen Pierce was asked if her country supports military action. She called it hypothetical, then pointedly quoted Lenin. She said her Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had spoken with Acting US Secretary of State Sullivan. Twice it turns out: the US has issued this read-out: "Acting Secretary of State John J. Sullivan spoke by phone twice today with UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.  During these calls, the Acting Secretary and Foreign Secretary discussed the alleged chemical weapon attack in Douma, Syria, which killed dozens of innocent civilians and injured several hundred more.  The two leaders discussed the international community’s response and potential further steps the U.S. and UK governments might take in coordination with other partners." Sweden's Olof Skoog, by contrast, said Sweden generally does not favor military action. He has proposed elements for discussion in a closed door consultation after the open meeting. Russia's Nebenzia said his country is willing to consider it. In Washington, President Trump's spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeated that "currently" the US is not conducting air strikes on Syria. We'll have more on that, and on the air strikes on Syria's T4 base near Homs, attributed to Israel (and to the advice of Mattis). In Washington, US President Trump said at his cabinet meeting “It was atrocious. It was horrible" and that his administration will be making a decision on Syria in the next 24-48 hours. “This is about humanity and it can’t be allowed to happen. If it’s the Russians, if it’s Syria, if it’s Iran, if it’s all of them together, we’ll figure it out.” (On meeting North Korea's Kim Jong Un, Trump said meeting will be in May OR early June.)  In the UN Security Council the nine, this time unlike on March 19, include Cote d'Ivoire. The UK On April 8 tweeted, "UK, France, US, Poland, Netherlands, Sweden, Kuwait, Peru and Cote d’Ivore have called an emergency meeting of #UNSC to discuss reports of chemical weapons attack in #Syria. Meeting expected on Monday." Back on March 19, these other countries did not have Cote d'Ivoire with them on Syria, resulting in a failed vote to hold a UN Security Council meeting on Syria. (An Arria formula meeting was quickly convened down the hall, where Inner City Press due to UN censorship for corruption can only go, if at all, with UN minder). This time, they got France-aligned Cote d'Ivoire on-side....

Today's UN of Antonio Guterres, who just met with ICC indictee Omar al Bashir, and his Deputy Amina J. Mohammed who has refused Press questions on her rosewood signatures and now the refoulement of 47 people to Cameroon from "her" Nigeria, has become a place of corruption and censorship. Amid UN bribery scandals, failures in countries from Cameroon to Yemen and declining transparency, today's UN does not even pretend to have content neutral rules about which media get full access and which are confined to minders or escorts to cover the General Assembly.

Inner City Press, which while it pursue the story of Macau-based businessman Ng Lap Seng's bribery of President of the General Assembly John Ashe was evicted by the UN Department of Public Information from its office, is STILL confined to minders as it pursues the new UN bribery scandal, of Patrick Ho and Cheikh Gadio allegedly bribing President of the General Assembly Sam Kutesa, and Chad's Idriss Deby, for CEFC China Energy.

Last week Inner City Press asked UN DPI where it is on the list to be restored to (its) office, and regain full office - and was told it is not even on the list, there is no public list, the UN can exclude, permanently, whomever it wants. This is censorship...

***

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

Past (and future?) UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA
For now: Box 20047, Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540

Google
 Search innercitypress.com  Search WWW (censored?)

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

 Copyright 2006-2018 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com for