France's
"Light" UN
August Sets
Syria August
16, Late on
Sudans &
Somalia
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
26 -- When
France on July
25 prepared
its "Program
of Work" for
its August UN
Security
Council
presidency, it
set
in an
otherwise
empty week an
August 16
consultation
to consider
whether to
extended the
UN Mission in
Syria beyond
the 30 days
France
agreed to on
July 20.
Inner
City Press has obtained the
French
Mission's July
25 program of
work
and puts it
online here,
summarizes it
below.
The
July 20
resolution
requires a 15
day report,
and says the
mission can
be extended.
France set a
meeting for
this three
days before
the
August 19
expiration, in
a week with no
other
meetings. Some
may
leave town,
others may not
come. And if
France has its
way, the
mission will
fully be
dismantled.
This
is consistent
with the
action of
Herve Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman
in a row to
control UN
Peacekeeping,
who was ready
on July 20 to
pull
the whole
mission out
until the
resolution was
passed, and
has still
sent half of
the
peacekeepers
home.
There
is also an
UNSMIS (Syria)
meeting listed
on August 2.
Perhaps after
that Ladsous
will try to
send the rest
of the
observers
home.
In
fact, well
placed sources
in the
Secretariat
tell Inner
City Press it
is Ladsous'
goal to reduce
the number to
twenty-some,
from the UN
Department of
Safety and
Security and
not Troop
Contributing
Countries.
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson's
office has
announced that
it will
neither
confirm or
deny things
that
(whistleblowing)
UN staff tell
Inner City
Press.
France's
focus
it is said is
on Mali, with
briefings and
consultations
on
August 8
followed by
lunch with Ban
Ki-moon.
Sudan
and South
Sudan will
come up on
August 9, a
full week
after the
August 2
deadline for
negotiations.
Likewise,
Somalia will
be
discussed on
August 22, two
days AFTER the
deadline for
the TFG.
Other
meetings
ranging from
Lebanon on
August 23 and
30, through a
Kosovo
"debate" on
August 21 and
Central Asia
on August 7.
There
is a "DPA
briefing" that
day.
France's
month
is "very
light," as one
attendee of
the July 25
Political
Coordinators
dinner hosted
by France told
Inner City
Press.
These are
usually
lunches, but
because of
Ramadan this
was held in
the evening.
The torch of
being the
"dean" of P5
Political
Coordinators
was passed
from seasoned
China to US
team player
Bill
Grant.
Previously
Inner
City Press covered its
passage from
Russia's
Vladimir
Safronkov to
the UK,
then out
of
the hands of
the UK's David
Quarrey,
who reappeared
at the Syria
meetings in
Geneva,
leading UK
efforts on the
Middle East.
France's
Political
Coordinator
Emmanuel Bonne
returned to
Paris. But the
beat
goes on, even
in France's
"light"
August. Watch
this site.
, 
