By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, September 27 -- With three days left in Lebanon's presidency of the UN Security Council, Ambassador Nawaf Salam threw an end of presidency bash in his huge Madison Avenue apartment on Tuesday night.
One longtime Deputy Permanent Representative marveled that there was no one burning issue of the evening, but rather discussions of Palestine, Libya, the Turkish fight with UN Security and holding up the rear Sudan, in that order.
The floors were lacquered red, the walls wood paneled and the felafel was hot. The Permanent Representatives of China, Portugal, Germany, South African, Nigeria, India, Bosnia, Brazil and more moved through the crowd, talking sanctions and GA intrigue, winding down from the UN's highest week.
Without attributing the sentiment to anyone in particular, there seemed to be a consensus that nothing will move fast on Palestine's application for full UN membership. The Ad Hoc comment might have to report, but the full Council can sit on it.
One European diplomat told Inner City Press it is impossible that any of the four EU members of the Council would vote "yes" for Palestine in the Council. The candidates for the next Council - Romania and Hungary, Morocco and Mauritania, for example -- might now be grilled on their views of Palestine.
Otherwise the interest was in the Turkish UN fight -- most people saying Ban Ki-moon, who did not appear, should never have apologized so quickly. Ban officials Patricia O'Brien and Kiyotaka Akasaka were in the house, as well as some from Security Council Affairs. Ban's scheduled had him going to Indonesia, but that was true of many Ambassadors.
What has to be said of Nawaf Salam is that despite being in a sense awkward, he was and is essentially decent, endeavoring to answer questions, in three languages, under constraints. Like Bosnia, Beirut's moment to moment politics do not make voting easy. By his heavy loaded bookshelves Inner City Press posited what an absent journalist had said, that Salam was a Maoist. An aide did not disagree.
Another joked, Giuliani lives across the hall -- some location for a Maoist. But Salam is an intellectual, as previously noted, an author and editor of books. More of this is needed at the UN. Hats off. Shukran -- with three days left. Watch this site.
