By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, February 22 -- Six days ago, Israel's ambassador Ron Prosor complained that the UN "Security Council should have condemned these attacks immediately. Israel expects it to issue a clear condemnation today."
On Wednesday evening after Security Council consultations including on Syria, it emerged that not India or the Host Country but Togo, as Council president, would be the sponsor of a statement condemning the attacks in New Delhi, Tblisi and Bangkok.
Some said that only the first was the type of terrorist act on which the Council speaks. But the draft will be "under silence" procedures until noon on Thursday.
There was talk of India still waiting for instructions from its capital. And so the Togolese solution.
There still remains surprise as the "weakness" of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon response, a "mere" note to correspondents. Sources in the Executive Office of the Secretary General indicated that this is because "nobody died." Ban has issued stronger statements, the complaint goes, in cases in which no one was actually killed. Now Ban has set off on a trip not only to London but also Zambia and Angola.
Ambassador Prosor came to the Security Council on Tuesday afternoon; Israel was on the list of speakers in the all day debate on crime and the Sahel. He assigned blame -- saying that Hezbollah is active in West Africa. And now... the Togolese solution. Watch this site.
