By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, October 6 -- Amid complaints in Lebanon against the UN, Inner City Press recently asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky about the closure of roads in front of the UN's ESCWA building there. Nesirky said that the UN does not talk about security.
But outgoing UN envoy Michael Williams, to his credit, Thursday answered Inner City Press' questions to the extent of disclosing that ESCWA, the Economic and Social Council for Western Asia, will be moving out of the building at issue as too unsafe.
Inner City Press was asking after Interior Minister Marwan Charbel denied, in a telephone call with LBCI Television, quotes attributed to him by Agence France-Presse. “No … it is not true that I told the AFP that there is a threat of an attack against ESCWA,” Charbel said.
"The whole front is glass," Williams said, after mentioning the vehicle bombing of the UN in Nigeria in August, and attacks after UN peacekeepers in Lebanon this year: against Italians in May, and French troops on July 26. (Williams gave an overview of Lebanon since it gains its independence from French colonialism in the 1940s.)
Given the costs that would be occasioned by such a move, Inner City Press asked Williams if the building to be vacated is owned by the UN or the Lebanese government. "It is owned by the company Solidere," Williams said.
Moments earlier, Nesirky had answered Inner City Press questions about what's described as a new "UN" building to be built on a playground on 42nd Street in Manhattan by saying the owner and building would not be the UN by the "UN Development Corporation."
I nner City Press asked, but wouldn't UNDC be getting rents from the UN, to pay the at least $65 million the City of New York is charging in the deal?
Nesirky insisted on the complete separateness of UNDC and the UN, as he has done on the UN and the UN Foundation, which has hired a lobbyist for the playground deal.
And in Lebanon? Watch this site.
Footnote: Inner City Press asked Michael Williams, also known as Baron Williams of Baglan, if he will be returning to the House of Lords from which he took a leave of absence on October 26, 2011. Williams said he would like to take an active role, especially in foreign affairs and the Middle East, but remains open to UN service. With the UNSMIL mission in Libya filled by Ian "the Brit" Martin, could Williams hold the top post in the Department of Political Affairs? Watch this site - and Williams.
