|
With Afghan Rifts of UN and Australia, Karzai and Obama,
Mullah Omar Returns
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
November 25 -- A significant split
in strategies in Afghanistan
is being characterized by the UN as merely a matter
of Australia's offer of a one-star general being too late. Australia's
Defense
Minister Joel Fitzgibbon, in recent meeting in Canada with other
defense
chiefs, strongly criticized
the UN's Kai Eide's approach to Afghanistan.
Fitzgibbon said his offer was rebuffed not due to timing but to Eide's
preference for agricultural and development aid over a more robust
military
strategy. Inner City Press on Tuesday at the UN in New York asked Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson Michele Montas to respond to Australia's criticism. Video
here,
from Minute 18:40.
Ms. Montas said that
Australia's offer came in
after a Canadian had been selected. But if Australia was going to pay
its
general, why not accept the offer? You can't have two generals at once,
Ms.
Montas said, adding Eide has a letter to the editor forthcoming that
will
address it.
If she
meant Eide's letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, it will not resolve
the
question. The split appears to be between the Europeans, represented by
Kai
Eide, and the approach articulated by Australia's Fitzgibbon but shared
by,
among others, the U.S. and Canada.
UN's Kai Eide, Al Qaeda and dissatisfaction not shown
Despite
expectations to the contrary, Barack Obama's replacement of George Bush
may not
lessen this rift. Word on the street in Kabul is that Obama
inexplicably
delayed in meeting with President Karzai, leading him to make his
public and
embarrassing offer to meet with no preconditions with Mullah Omar.
Ironically,
Obama is publicly more willing to meet with the presidents of Iran and
Venezuela than with Afghanistan's. Reach
out to your enemies but not to your allies, the thinking seems to be.
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
|
