By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UN
System,
April 21 --
After Russia
on circulated
a draft
resolution to
deploy 300
military
observers to
Syria, and
France then
followed with
its own draft
speaking of
human rights
-- which it
opposes in the
pending
Western Sahara
resolution --
the US State
Department
told
Inner City
Press it
believed there
was only one
draft.
And
soon that
became true:
France dropped
human rights,
and the call
for
"independent"
air asset the
the threat of
action under
Article 41 of
the UN Charter
if the Assad
government
does not
comply.
And
so on Saturday
morning, after
the surreal
read out of a
statement on
the coup
d'etat
in Guinea
Bissau, the
Security
Council
adopted the
Russian
introduced
draft, now
with further
co-sponsors,
by a vote of
15 - 0.
Russia's
Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin
spoke first
after the
vote, saying
that the
Libya model is
a thing of the
past. Indeed.
France's
Gerard Araud
spoke next,
bloviating
about things
dropped from
the
resolution,
such
as the
possibility of
sanctions.
Ironically,
the
Guinea Bissau
Presidential
Statement
explicitly
mentioned the
possibility of
targeted
sanctions. But
it came out of
the Syria
resolution.
And so it goes
at the UN.
Watch this
site.
