Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/isaf1coldwar091908.html
UNITED NATIONS, September 19, updated -- The mystery of the delay this week in considering Security Council's draft resolution to extend approval of the International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan has been explained to Inner City Press by involved diplomats: Russia is attempting to introduce language about the type of civilian casualties recently caused by U.S. missile strikes.
Russia last month introduced a draft Press Statement on the topic -- in the wake of criticism of its military activities in Georgia by the U.S. and others. The Press Statement appeared to die on the vine, but its spirit lives on, now delaying the ISAF extension. The item was on the Council's schedule, and then disappeared. Neither Russia nor the U.S. is publicly discussing the issue.
Update of 3:15 p.m. -- in closed consultation in the Council, Italy has proposed to put the draft into "silence procedure" until 7 p.m., then vote on it on Monday. Russia has countered that they must go back to their capital. Now the vote is set for noon on September 22.
What some call the new Cold War is gathering strength, but not all the moves are in public.
For example, in the closed meeting of the UN General Assembly's General Committee this week, sources tell Inner City Press that the U.S. and Russian representatives got into a dispute so heated that security had to be called. Also in private at the UN was a meeting by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad with the new President of the General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua. Following his speech heavily criticizing the U.S., Ambassador Khalilzad was asked to respond "to the GA president's speech."
Khalilizad responded
Ambassador Khalilzad: Well, it's very important to know what the role of the president of the GA is. He is the president of the entire 192 tribes that are here. And his role is to facilitate the discussion, to follow the rules, to do things that makes this organization work and brings people together.
So I hope that the president appreciates that, that is his role, and that's the expectation of the members of this organization. For him to succeed in the role that - he has to play his role, and that role is to be a unifier, to look forward representing the interests of all members rather than picking on some members, siding with others. That, I think, would undermine his effectiveness, and I don't think that's in his interests or the interests of the organization.
On September 19, Inner City Press asked Brockmann's spokesman about the comments, and was told that the two had met and agreed to work together.
