By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 31 -- Twenty-three days after Thabo Mbeki briefed the UN Security Council on agreements between Sudan and South Sudan, the Council on Friday afternoon belatedly adopted a Presidential Statement on the topic.
Inner City Press asked outgoing President of the Council Gerard Araud about one of the changes, from an August 14 draft which "demanded" that Sudan "fully & unconditionally" accept Mbeki map, watered down to "strongly urge to accept."
Araud said "every comma" was fought over, reflecting divisions in the Council, and that a shorter statement should have been adopted much earlier.
Before the meeting, another Permanent Representative expressed concern to Inner City Press that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon either met or held a plausible deniability "handshake" with Sudan's president Omar al Bashir, who is indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide. He indicated that "Ban has told us how he tried to avoid" contact with Bashir.
Not hard enough: click here for Inner City Press' story earlier today.
Araud said this might be his last presidency. He defended what's been cited as failures of his month -- click here for Inner City Press' review -- on Mali and Cote d'Ivoire, blaming the first on ECOWAS and saying that latter will be addressed later.
Still it was appreciated: call and response is always better than stonewalling. Inner City Press asked if any progress on a UN Special Envoy on the Sahel. Araud said to look for it at the High Level meeting on the Sahel in late September. Watch this site.
