Saturday, September 22, 2012

Proposed UNSC Praise of Arab League Would Cite Syria, Not Palestine, Spin War


By Matthew Russell Lee
 
UNITED NATIONS, September 20 -- Amid the UN General Assembly speeches next week, the Security Council will meet on September 26 and try to adopt a presidential statement. The text is being negotiated but has run into at least two blockages. But only one of them is in the draft distributed earlier this week, which Inner City Press is putting online here.

  The draft lavishes praise on the Arab League, and cites to the General Assembly's February 16, 2012 resolution 67/253 appointing a joint Arab League - UN envoy on Syria (Kofi Annan, since failed).

  The two (Permanent) Security Council members which voted against that GA resolution are said to oppose this reference too; relatedly, even more members want a reference to the Israel and Palestine issue, perhaps a citation to the Arab Peace Initiative. One Council members asked Inner City Press, "how can you not, if you want to use the Arab League on Syria?"

  Language has been proposed but, the source continued, the United States is opposed to any reference to Palestine. "It's the election," the source diagnosed.

  And so while meetings continue on the bland draft, some of the September 26 meeting's proponent are lowering expectations, saying the mere meeting is a success, no output is needed. So it goes at the UN.