By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unfr1mistral012810.html
UNITED NATIONS, January 28 -- When one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council seeks to sell high tech warships to another of the P-5, against the interests of a smaller country which is on the Council's agenda, isn't it a UN relevant matter, even if the seller's Ambassador says "no" as he walks away from a question about it?
France has moved to sell Mistral class warships to Russia, whose war with Georgia over South Ossetia was debated in the Council, and mediated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
On January 28, as France's Permanent Representative Gerard Araud was talking questions from reporters at the Council stakeout on topics ranging from Cote d'Ivoire to Iran and Chad, Inner City Press asked "about the Mistral." Video here, at Minute 6:25.
Araud immediately walked away from the microphone and UN Television camera. "That's not the UN," he said. But isn't it?
France and Araud take over the presidency of the Security Council in February. As such, to read out press statements and provide summaries of Council consultations, Araud will be at the stakeout more frequently. Whether he will stick to this narrow definition of "the UN" remains to be seen.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/unfr1mistral012810.html
