Top
UN
Political Job
Slated for
Jeffrey
Feltman of US,
Sources
Complain
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 28 --
The UN's top
political job,
currently
occupied
by Lynn Pascoe
of the United
States, is
slated to be
filled with
another
American,
Inner City
Press is told
by well placed
sources,
current US
Assistant
Secretary of
State for Near
Eastern
Affairs
Jeffrey
Feltman.
As
weeks and even
months have
gone by since
it was
announced that
Pascoe would
leave
under
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
"five year
mobility"
rule, other
top post have
been filled.
Inner City
Press first
reported
that Argentine
Susana
Malcorra would
be shifted
closer to
Ban, from the
Department of
Field Support,
and she
has been named
Ban's chief of
staff.
Inner
City Press
first
predicted that
Egypt's
Mubarak-era
Ambassador
Maged
Abdelaziz
would be named
Ban's Special
Adviser on
Africa and he
was.
When the head
of the
Department of
Management
Angela Kane of
Germany hit
the five year
limit, Inner
City Press reported on
posts she and
Germany were
offered
including UN
Disarmament,
which
she took.
But
the Department
of Political
Affairs post
has been
shrouded in
mystery.
Unlike other
Under
Secretary
General posts,
it has not
been
advertised in
The Economist.
"It is
entirely up to
the
Americans," a
source close
to Ban told
Inner
City Press,
adding that Ban had
wanted former
US Ambassador
to the UN
Alejandro
Wolff.
But
those close to
Wolff told
Inner City
Press he is
not coming.
Before that,
as Inner
City Press
reported,
there was
push-back to
this trial
balloon,
including in
light of
Wolff's strong
advocacy for
Israel for
example
during the
Security
Council's long
session about
the
confrontation
on
the aid
flotilla to
Gaza.
Now,
a well
placed
diplomat
complained to
Inner City
Press
Wednesday
about
Feltman. "This
would strip
from the UN
its last scrap
of
credibility in
the Middle
East," he
said, adding
that "more
shoes would be
thrown at Ban
Ki-moon."
He
said, however,
that Ban might
be "so out of
touch" -- or
so powerless
or craven --
that he would
rubber stamp
the nomination
of a Permanent
Five member
of the
Security
Council as he
had France's
ill-fated and
11th hour
nomination of
Herve Ladsous
as the UN's
top
peacekeeper.
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site.
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