After
UK
Open to Press,
US Moves to
Cut Horizon,
Feltman on the
Way?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 29 --
The UK's month
atop the UN
Security
Council began
with Welsh
cheese and
ended with
cocktails, but
in between was
more dogged
transparency
than is
usually seen
at the UN
stakeout.
UK
Permanent
Representative
Mark Lyall
Grant and his
Deputy Philip
Parham appear
to have set
the record for
Q&A
availabilities,
summarizing
closed door
consultations
and even
answering
questions in
their national
capacity
except when
about
"specific
individuals,"
even Yemen
strongman Ali
Saleh.
The
UK's main
recent reform,
the so-called
horizon
briefing by
the Department
of Political
Affairs, faces
a second
erasure from
the United
States, which
takes over the
Council in
April.
The UK began
the innovation
in November
2010; the US
didn't follow
in December.
But after that
all Council
member held
one, a session
in which DPA
can bring up
topics of
interest even
if not on the
Council's
formal agenda.
These have
included
piracy and the
Sahel and here
today, gone
tomorrow coups
d'etat like
Mali's may
turn out to
be. But the
horizon
briefings are
useful.
Thursday
at the UK's
End of
Presidency
reception
Inner City
Press learned
that, at least
for now, the
US has not
included any
horizon
briefing on
its agenda for
April. It's
strange, since
the US
controls the
Department of
Political
Affairs, for
now through
its former
Ambassador to
Indonesia Lynn
Pascoe and prospectively,
as first
reported by
Inner City
Press, by
Jeffrey
Feltman its
Assistant
Secretary of
State for the
Middle East.
Inner
City Press was
first
on that story,
and got much
feedback on it
in the course
of Thursday
night's
reception. "A
perfect
election year
appointment,"
one Ambassador
told Inner
City Press. A
red flag for
at least some
in the Arab
and Persian
world, said
another.
There
was also
feedback on
Inner City
Press' story
of only a few
hours
previously,
how Ban
Ki-moon lost
control on
Syria to his
predecessor
Kofi Annan.
"If you
appoint
someone like
that," a well
placed
Permanent
Representative
told Inner
City Press,
"what do you
expect?"
Indeed.
Drones
too were
discussed,
including with
regard to
procurement. Herve "The
Drone"
Ladsous, the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row atop UN
Peacekeeping,
blithely
proposed them
in the C-24
committee.
Members
complained
to Inner City
Press,
including on
who would get
the
information,
beyond DPKO
and France? So
far the
questions have
not been
answered.
Members
of the UK
Mission
commiserated
that only two
resolutions
were adopted
under their
presidency.
OK, if that's
the measure --
but there were
some of the
longest
Presidential
Statements
ever,
including one
on Afghanistan
measured at
eight minutes
in length.
Anyway in
terms of
transparency
to the press
and thus the
public, the
UK's number of
stakeouts blew
away for
example France,
whose
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud
did only three
during his
last month as
President.
There
was some push
back, frankly,
for having
reported that
Araud rather
than speaking
openly held a
confidential
or background
briefing
earlier on
Thursday. But
the French
mission has
played thug
not only with
UN media but with its
own
Francophone
advocates for
the indigenous.
We repeat what
one of the
complainants
said: when one
reads
propaganda
attributed to
a "Western
diplomat"
tomorrow, you
will know
where it is
from. Watch
this site.
, 
