By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, July 27 -- An hour after Saudi Arabia's Permanent Representative Abdallah al-Mouallimi told Inner City Press that the Syria resolution he is drafting will be presented to the General Assembly "next week, Monday," Inner City Press obtained the draft, and is now putting it online here.
The draft resolution, of course, deplored and denounced, and mentions chemical weapons:
"7. Demands that the Syrian authorities strictly observe their obligations under international law with respect to chemical and biological weapons, including the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, signed at Geneva on 17 June 1925"
This 1925 signing was cited by Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin this week on the Charlie Rose show. TheSaudi draft goes on and
"further demands that the Syrian authorities refrain from using, transferring, producing, developing or otherwise acquiring any chemical or biological weapons or any related material, and that the Syrian authorities meet their obligation to account for and secure all chemical and biological weapons and any related material."
Again, the General Assembly cannot impose sanctions or authorize any use of force. Its credential committee can withdraw accreditation, as it did for diplomats representing Gaddafi's Libya and the Cote d'Ivoire of Laurent Gbagbo.
In Syria, UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous is already dismantling the observer mission which the Security Council extended for a month back on July 20.
Both Saudi Arabia and Qatar, whose former Permanent Representative is now President of the General Assembly, are widely reported to be arming the rebels in Syria. They stand accused, too, of involvement with the extremist who are destroying mausoleums in Timbuktu in northern Mali. Whatever the legality, they now have another GA resolution.
Saudi's Ambassador also spoke on July 25 at the UN stakeout about Palestine. Inner City Press asked him about the effectiveness of the Quartet and whether it should continue. He stopped and said, on camera, it should continue, but take up its responsibilities. Watch this site.
