By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 13 -- When UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon came to the Security Council on the morning of August 8, instead of going straight into the Chamber for the meeting on Mali he entered through a side door.
But he did not find what he was looking for, and soon went into the Chamber.
Inner City Press, on the scene, tweeted the misdirection play.
Five minutes later, US Ambassador Susan Rice arrived at the Security Council. After the Mali session she went through the so-called Quiet Room, soon to be followed by Ban Ki-moon and his entourage.
To a US Mission spokesman on the scene, Inner City Press asked what this meeting was about, and when it had been scheduled. There was no definitive, or reportable, answer.
Then at the August 8 UN noon briefing, Inner City Pressasked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky
Inner City Press: Iran has said that the Secretary-General has confirmed that he will attend the NAM meeting at the end of this month. This is in turn giving rise to some concerns, and I say, I guess, in Washington and Israel that he would send a wrong message. Are the Iranian Government statements that he is going to the NAM meeting incorrect or is he going?
Spokesperson Nesirky: We are obviously aware of those reports. Um, I cannot confirm them, and I’m not going to comment on them.
Now Inner City Press is informed of "bragging" that the US has "demarched" Ban Ki-moon not to go to the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Iran at the end of this month.
It has not been possible to put the question to Ambassador Rice in the interim.
But Ban, now in South Korea and then Timor L'este, has made no announcement. Watch this site.
