By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 21 -- After rounds of interviews from his Paris apartment and uncorrected false reports Lakhdar Brahimi is a Nobel Peace laureate, at the UN in New York on Tuesday Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky two of the three Brahimi questions it had prepared.
Nesirky began by announcing that Nasser al-Kidwa will be deputy to Brahimi on Syria, as he was to Kofi Annan. Inner City Press asked if that meant that Annan's other deputy Jean-Marie Guehenno, who quit to return to the French government, will not be replaced.
"I've announced what I have to announce," Nesirky said, turning immediately to another questioner. Video here, from Minute 7:44.
When Nesirky returned for what Inner City Press had said would be its second Brahimi question, the answer was even more curt.
Inner City Press asked about continued media reports that Brahimi is a "Nobel Peace laureate," noting as the Nobel Foundation did in its response to Inner City Press that the UN once received this prize: is the claim based the award to the UN as a whole? (The Nobel Foundation told Inner City Press that this should not be done, click here for that.)
Nesirky replied, "with the greatest of respect, I'm not responsible for the content of media reports about the Joint Special Representative." Then he even faster than the first time switched to another questioner. Video here, from Minute 9:33. We'll have more on this.
To other questioners, Nesirky said that Brahimi will be based in New York, and will come to the UN in New York late this week for consultations.
Inner City Press asked the Permanent Representative of a non-Permanent member of the Security Council, who had heard nothing about it.
But apparently neither had Ban Ki-moon: as of Tuesday afternoon, Ban Ki-moon's "Daily Schedule" says "The Secretary-General will be away from Headquarters from 21-24 August 2012."
It was said Ban got back from his Timor and South Korea trip on August 17. It would be nice to ask, but questions are limited, as noted above.
Another question: who is Brahimi's spokesperson? And if as it appears he doesn't have (a good) one, when will it start: August 31?
How many apologies can Brahimi request, and prizes be reported to have, by then? Watch this site.
