Eritrea
Rep Says Maybe
Ethiopia
Offers Help
Ping 2d AU
Term As Trade
for Sanctions,
Others Talk
Zuma
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 30, updated
-- Amid
widespread questioning
in the UN
Security
Council of the
push to vote
today on new
Eritrea
sanctions,
with the US
having blocked
a request from
Eritrean
President
Isaias Afwerki
to talk to the
Council, Gabon
midday on
Wednesday
again said it
would call for
a vote later
that day.
Sources tell
Inner City
Press that Russia has
threatened to
veto.
Inner
City Press has
obtained a
copy of the
November 29
letter to the
Council from
Eritrea's UN
Ambassador
Araya Desta,
and asked
Desta about
it. "It is the
third letter,"
Desta told
Inner City
Press.
The letter
says, "It has
come to my
attention that
the delebation
of Gabon
intends to
table the
draft
resolution on
Eritrea for
action
tomorrow... I
appeal to your
Excellency
that H.E. Mr.
Isaias
Afwerki,
President of
the State of
Eritrea, be
given the
audience to
address the
[UNSC] before
any action is
taken on the
draft
resolution."
Desta
speaking
exclusively to
Inner City
Press went
further: "What
does Gabon
know about
Eritrea? Where
it is? They
don't even
know the
location of
Eritrea."
Significantly,
larger African
member of the
Council South
Africa is
known to
oppose voting
on Wednesday
on the
proposed
sanctions.
Desta
told Inner
City Press,
"It is crazy
to penalize
the Eritrean
people in
order to get a
second term
for Jean Ping
as
commissioner
of the African
Union." He
mused, "maybe
Meles [Zenawi]
tells him,
I'll help you
get a second
term, if you
help" put more
sanctions on
Eritrea.
Inner
City Press
asked Desta
why he thought
the US was
being so
adamant. Desta
said "my
President has
write two or
three letters"
to President
Obama, "my
foreign
minister met
with them."
Some have
alluded to the
US "using"
Ethiopia to
fight
Islamists in
Somalia, first
the Islamic
Courts and now
Al Shabaab,
including it's
said from
drone bases in
Ethiopia.
(c) UN Photo
Ping, TFG
President, Ban
Ki-moon and
Kim-won soo,
SC due process
not shown
To
be less
US-focused,
Eritrea
clearly has
enemies among
other
neighbors:
Djibouti, for
example, often
buzzes around
the Security
Council. But
the idea that
a head of
state should
on request be
allowed to
address the
Security
Council before
such sanctions
are voted on
seems to be
widely held.
Watch this
site.
Update:
Still
on the AU,
later on
Wednesday a
representative
of one of
Eritrea's
neighbors came
to complain to
Inner City
Press that
"South Africa
is pressuring
us to vote as
Zuma says" --
that is,
Nkosozana
Dlamini Zuma,
former SA
Foreign
Minister &
current SA
Home Affairs
Minister --
"now it's just
sour grapes on
their part.
They need to
decide if they
are with the
BRICS or with
Africa."
Others would
say it's not
either /
or....
, 
