By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, March 28 -- The UN's top political job, currently occupied by Lynn Pascoe of the United States, is slated to be filled with another American, Inner City Press is told by well placed sources, current US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman.
As weeks and even months have gone by since it was announced that Pascoe would leave under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's "five year mobility" rule, other top post have been filled. Inner City Press first reported that Argentine Susana Malcorra would be shifted closer to Ban, from the Department of Field Support, and she has been named Ban's chief of staff.
Inner City Press first predicted that Egypt's Mubarak-era Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz would be named Ban's Special Adviser on Africa and he was.
When the head of the Department of Management Angela Kane of Germany hit the five year limit, Inner City Press reported on posts she and Germany were offered including UN Disarmament, which she took.
But the Department of Political Affairs post has been shrouded in mystery. Unlike other Under Secretary General posts, it has not been advertised in The Economist.
"It is entirely up to the Americans," a source close to Ban told Inner City Press, adding that Ban had wanted former US Ambassador to the UN Alejandro Wolff.
But those close to Wolff told Inner City Press he is not coming. Before that, as Inner City Press reported, there was push-back to this trial balloon, including in light of Wolff's strong advocacy for Israel for example during the Security Council's long session about the confrontation on the aid flotilla to Gaza.
Now, a well placed diplomat complained to Inner City Press Wednesday about Feltman. "This would strip from the UN its last scrap of credibility in the Middle East," he said, adding that "more shoes would be thrown at Ban Ki-moon."
He said, however, that Ban might be "so out of touch" -- or so powerless or craven -- that he would rubber stamp the nomination of a Permanent Five member of the Security Council as he had France's ill-fated and 11th hour nomination of Herve Ladsous as the UN's top peacekeeper. Watch this site.
