By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 1 -- As opposition fighters conduct a "tactical retreat" from the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs in Syria, at the UN in New York China broke silence on the draft Security Council press statement calling for Syria to let UN Humanitarian chief Valerie Amos in.
Inner City Press asked the Council's president for March, UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant, about the status of the draft statement. One country broke silence, he said, adding with a smile "a big country, lot of people."
He said that there is a bilateral meeting scheduled, and he still hopes to issue the press statement "this morning."
Another Council member, with fewer people, told Inner City Press on February 27 that the drafters shouldn't "try to do with a press statement what they couldn't with a resolution" that got vetoed.
This country, as well as China and others, urge that the press statement call for cooperation not only by the Syrian government, but by all parties. What will that mean in Baba Amr?
Meanwhile Inner City Press has learned that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's report to the General Assembly, called for in the February 16 GA resolution on Syria, will be delivered orally in the GA on March 2 at 3 pm. Click here for Inner City Press' story on Ban's and Kofi Annan's joint press encounter on February 29, and watch this site.
