As
Jarba Goes
Saudi on
Geneva 2, "He'll
Be Missed,"
Russia
Says, Syria
Counter-Story
By
Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 22 --
Before today's
meeting in
London with
the
"moderate
Syrian
opposition,"
the foundering
Syrian
National
Coalition
chief Ahmad al
Jarba
released his
speech in
advance. It
appeared on Reuters
and Al-Arabiya.
In
front of the
UN Security
Council in New
York, Inner
City Press
asked
Russian
Permanent
Representative
Vitaly Churkin
what he
thought of
the headline:
Jarba will not
attend the
Geneva Two
talks unless
the
objective is
the exit or
ouster of
Bashar al
Assad.
Churkin
smiled
and said, of
Jarba, "He
will be
missed."
To
some long-form
analysts
of Saudi
Arabia's
on-again
off-again
drive
for a seat on
the UN
Security
Council,
Jarba's
vacillation on
going
to Geneva,
like his rise
to power, has
a Saudi flavor
to it.
Syria's
Mission to the
UN
has a
different
story: of a faux
hand-picked
leader who was
jailed in the
country
not for
rebellion but
another crime;
that while in
jail he heard
of a
plot against
the Saudi
royals and
once out,
traded it in
Riyadh for a
green card.
And the rest
is history!
That's just a
counter-story:
we're open to
more official
biographies.
The
Syrian
National
Coalition has
a media e-mail
list,
deploring by
rote
attacks by the
armed
opposition on
the ground in
Syria. But
Jarba's
words go out
in advance
only to
friends.
When
Jarba came to
New York in
July, he was
hosted for a faux "UN
briefing" by
the UN
Correspondents
Association,
which has on
its
Executive
Committee Reuters,
CBS, Agence
France Presse
and Gulf
media.
In
September,
such a faux
briefing was
twice
scheduled and
twice
questioned
by the new Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info.
Eventually
Jarba
appeared
in a smallish
room in a
midtown hotel
-- then at Ban
Ki-moon's
UN-provided
residence.
And
now, according
to Churkin, he
will be
missed. Watch
this site.
, 
