By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 21
-- As this
Fall's UN
General
Assembly
begins,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon and
different
members of his
team met back
to back Friday
with the United
Arab Emirates'
foreign
minister
Sheikh
Abdullah Bin
Zayed Al
Nahyan
then with an
Arab League
delegation led
by Nabil
Elaraby.
Inner
City Press
covered both
as photo-ops,
being confined
between the
two in a
holding room
with an
Egyptian
videographer
in the office
of Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson.
Questions
arose about
Ban's
different
line-ups for
the two
meetings.
Ban's
uncommunicative
top
Peacekeeper
Herve Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to hold
the post,
attended the
meeting with
the UAE but
not with the
Arab League.
Since the UAE
is hardly big
in UN
Peacekeeping,
one thought
the rationale
would be to
talk about
Syria. But
Ladsous was
absent from
the more
Syria-focused
Arab League
meeting.
Terje
Roed-Larsen,
whose mandate
under Security
Council
resolution
1559 Syria has
repeatedly
sought to
reign in, was
present for
both meetings.
Ban's top
lawyer
Patricia
O'Brien, also
uncommunicative
in that she
has repeatedly
refused
requests to do
a press
conference or
take
questions,
arrived for
the Arab
League
meeting, of
which Inner
City Press
made a 3-minute
video, on
YouTube here
and below.
The
head of the UN
Department of
Political
Affairs,
former US
State
Department
official
Jeffrey
Feltman, was
understandably
present for
both meetings.
The UAE
foreign
minister called
out to
him, "Jeff, I
just sent you
a text
message,"
which Feltman
acknowledged
receiving. For
Iran - LOL?
Here
was Ban's
spokesperson's
office's
read-out of
the UAE
meeting:
"They
discussed
several
regional
issues
including
Syria, and the
Middle East
Peace Process.
The
Secretary-General
thanked Sheikh
Abdullah for
hosting the UN
presence in
the UAE and
welcomed the
newly
established
UNOCHA Gulf
Office. He
also noted the
important role
the UAE is
playing in
humanitarian
financing
through its
Office for the
Coordination
of Foreign
Aid."
So
that's why the
UN's top
humanitarian
Valerie Amos
was there. But
why was
Ladsous at the
UAE meeting?
Watch this
site.
Update
of 6:36 pm --
the UN
spokesperson
has put out
this read out
of the
Arab League
meeting:
They
discussed
first and
foremost the
situation in
Syria, with
its
political
impasse,
widespread
human rights
abuses, and
growing
humanitarian
crisis.
They
expressed
serious
concern about
the question
of Palestine,
the lack
of progress in
peace negotiations,
and the
alarming
economic
situation as
well as the
absence of
hope in the
occupied
Palestinian
territory.
Finally,
they
discussed the
rioting that
recently
erupted
following the
posting of the
irresponsible
and
provocative
video on the
Prophet
Mohammed,
which they
condemned,
while
deploring the
violence that
ensued.
But what about France Banning even peaceful protests? Click here for that.
