At
UN,
Top Political
Job Said
Slated for
Wolff, Pascoe
To Hold Over
Until June?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 4 --
The UN
Department of
Political
Affairs,
current
led by Lynn
Pascoe of the
United States,
stands to get
a new Under
Secretary
General.
Last month
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
chief
of staff Vijay
Nambiar
included
Pascoe in a
list of USGs
who, having
served five
years,
will leave in
the first half
of 2012.
It
had been
anticipated
that Pascoe
would leave
between March
and April,
while
his fellow
USGs Shaaban
Shaaban of
Egypt and Sha
Zukang of
China
would be kept
in place until
June, to
complete the
Rio + 20
conference.
But
now well
placed sources
hear that
Pascoe intends
to also remain
until June,
because the
American put
forward as a
replacement by
the US State
Department --
Inner City
Press is
exclusively
informed by
these
sources that
this is former
US Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Alejandro
Wolff
-- "will not
be ready"
until then.
Wolff
left his
Deputy
post at the US
Mission to the
UN to
become
Ambassador to
Chile. He
served with
George W.
Bush's
Permanent
Representative
to
the UN Zalmay
Khalilzad,
and for a time
with Obama
appointee Susan
Rice.
Now Wolff
would return
as head of the
UN's
Department of
Political
Affairs, the
sources say.
They
note that
Rice rarely
spoke with
Pascoe,
leaving that
task to her
deputy
Rosemary
DiCarlo.
One assumes
that Rice
would speak
with Wolff --
for as long as
Rice stays at
the UN.
(c) UN Photo
Wolff with
Susan Rice and
UK Mark Lyall
Grant: chef de
cabinet not
shown
A
quixotic play
for the top
DPA top is
said to have
been made by
long time --
more
than five
years -- UN
official Bob
Orr. He had
said that the
five
year rule
applies to him
as well: how,
remains to be
seen.
Footnote:
The idea is
that if the US
keeps the
Department of
Political
Affairs, which
used to belong
to the UK, the
UK may now get
the Chief
of
Staff or Chef
de Cabinet
post which
Vijay Nambiar
is slated to
give up,
leading the UK
to have to
sacrifice
Baroness
Valerie Amos
at
the Office for
the
Coordination
of
Humanitarian
Affairs. And
who will
get that?
Watch this
site.
, 
