By Matthew Russell Lee, News Muse
UNITED NATIONS, March 5 -- While in Washington Senator John McCain called for US-led airstrikes on Syria, citing as precedent the campaign on Serbia and Kosovo which had no UN Security Council approval, in front of the Security Council Monday the messages were mixed.
One Permanent Five member's Permanent Representative told Inner City Press there would be "consultations Tuesday on the American draft" resolution.
Another P5 Perm Rep disputed that, and at day's end when Inner City Press asked the UK's Mark Lyall Grant, President of the Council for March, if there would be "P5 plus One" consultation, he answered this question with a question: who's the one?
Morocco, of course, representing the Arab League. Lyall Grant smiled and said, "Consultations continue."
The scuttlebutt such as is it is that at first the US Mission to the UN had a draft that was all ceasefire and humanitarian access, and previous vetoers said they might agree to it, as they agreed last week to a Council Press Statement calling for UN humanitarian envoy Valerie Amos to be admitted, and for "all parties" to cooperate. [Click here for that story.]
Then, the story goes, the US added a "political dimension" -- surely not as far as Sen. McCain would like, but further than the vetoers are ready to go at present.
Meanwhile a previously scheduled briefing of the Council Tuesday by Valerie Amos on "the Sahel and Syria" has been canceled, with Amos now heading to Syria with a visa. Kofi Annan, too, will be in Damascus after that on March 10. While in New York Annan met with, among others, the Permanent Representatives of Syria and Iran. One obsessed correspondent repeatedly ask the Press, "Did Kofi meet with Israel?"
Also on March 10, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov arrives in Cairo to speak with his Arab counterparts. It's after that, a non-permanent Council member's Permanent Representative told Inner City Press, that things will get moving. We'll see - watch this site.
