As
Alsaidi of Yemen Retires to IPI, Roed-Larsen Bahrain Trip's UN Link?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 29 -- When Abdullah M. Alsaidi announced earlier this
year he was resigning as Yemen's Ambassador at the UN, where he had
represented President Ali Abdullah Saleh since 2002, it was described
as an act of principle, akin to Ibrahim Dabbashi and Shalgam
resigning as Libyan diplomats in protest of Gaddafi's crackdown.
But
sources well
placed on Yemen inform Inner City Press that before his loud
“resignation,” Alsaidi was informed by letter that it was time
for him to retire. For some time, Alsaidi had been seeking a job with
the UN. If he simply retired, he would have to return to Yemen. So he
resigned.
Soon
thereafter he
was hired not by the UN but by the International Peace Institute
across the street, which announced on its website that
“Ambassador
Alsaidi was the Permanent Representative of Yemen to the United
Nations from 2002 until his resignation last week in response to the
killing of dozens of demonstrators by pro-government forces in
Sanaa... Terje Roed-Larsen, IPI's President, welcomed Ambassador
Alsaidi, saying, 'His considerable experience both as a high-level
diplomat and as an academic will be a strong asset for IPI in helping
the UN and its partners better understand ongoing developments in the
Middle East.'”
Some
find it
particularly appropriate that Alsaidi lands at IPI under Roed-Larsen,
who is viewed as an ally of Saudi Arabia, among others.
Recently
Roed-Larsen
traveled to Bahrain. While the UN has said publicly that
Roed-Larsen traveled in his “personal capacity” and not in any
connection with his part time post as Under Secretary General and
representative on Security Council Resolution 1559, Inner City Press
has been told some of the backstory.
Sources
say
Roed-Larsen asked to travel to Bahrain in a UN capacity, but that the
UN said no. He then traveled there, taking one of the UN staffers
from his Resolution 1559 post who, sources says, traveled with a UN
Laissez Passer. While in Bahrain, Roed-Larsen presented himself as a
UN official.
How
the UN is
served by allowing a person to simultaneously be an Under Secretary
General and run a think tank some view as partisan directly across
from the UN, and to blur the roles, remains a mystery.
At the UN
noon briefing of April 29, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's
spokesman Martin Nesirky to confirm or deny
that Roed-Larsen took to Bahrain with him a UN staff member using a UN
Laissez Passer. Nesirky said he didn't know, and that if he find out he
will say. Watch this
site.
* * *
On
Libya,
Ban Envoy Khatib “Out of Touch” on New Adviser Ian
Martin
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 28 -- The UN's first
envoy to Libya, Abdel-Elah
Al-Khatib, was described Thursday by a Security Council member as
“out of touch.” The Council diplomat told Inner City Press, “We
want to see him in New York next week to hear what if anything he's
been accomplishing.”
If
the UN in New
York doesn't know what Khatib's been doing, he likewise has been in
the dark about developments in New York.
UN
sources leak that Ian Martin,
who as exclusively reported by
Inner City Press was recently brought back into the UN Department of
Political Affairs by DPA chief Lynn Pascoe to work on Libya, has now
been named an Under Secretary General, advisor to Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon on Libya.
This
was done
“behind Khatib's back,” as one source put it to Inner City Press,
leading to resentment on the part of Khatib, who as reported is still
a sitting Senator in Jordan, alongside his business interests. These
conflicts, repeatedly raised by Inner City Press, have still not been
addressed -- watch this site.
Ban & al-Khatib, Jordan pay and Ian Martin not
shown, who's
playing whom?
There
is
grumbling, too, inside DPA's Africa Division, that a “Brit” like
Martin is brought it to lead up work on an African country. DPA's
Africa Division staff largely support the African Union positions on
Libya, and are complaining about Pascoe. Political Affairs, indeed.
After
the Security
Council's consultations Thursday on Libya, Russian Permanent
Representative Vitaly Churkin told the Press he expressed concern
that the coalition's actions and bombings might make the rebels less
likely to negotiate a political solution.
On
the other side,
UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant told the media he had
pushed those countries blocking the proposed new listings for Libya
sanctions to remove those blocks. There are four such countries:
Russia, China, India and, surprising to some, the US.
Inner
City Press
asked outgoing Council president Nestor Osorio of Colombia about the
discussion of sanctions blocks in the consultations. He declined to
answer, instead thanking the Press for its coverage over the course
of the month.
While
he said it
was his last act as President, later on Thursday the Council during
its retreat with Ban Ki-moon issued a pressless Press Statement on
the bombing in Morocco.
Some
speculate
that Ban will tell the Council members during the retreat that he
wants their support for a second term as Secretary General. Not only
would trying to move this during the upcoming Presidency in May of
Permanent Five member France be considered impolitic -- if Ban's
management to date of Libya is an indication, there may be problems
with and in five more years. Watch this site.
* * *
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