By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 29 -- After a Syria briefing by UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Inner City Press asked Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin about the status of the draft press statement Russia circulated in the Security Council on Wednesday, on which Inner City Press reported, and is now putting online, condemning the Damascus bombing.
Churkin said that first some Council members asked for more time -- Inner City Press understands that the silence procedure was extended to 10 am -- and then the United States said "no."
Pulling a sheet of paper out of his pocket, Churkin read out loud what he said was the response from the United States -- whose Ambassador Susan Rice was seen entering the Security Council before the session -- that there was "not sufficient information to label it a terrorist attack." This has a certain echo.
(When Inner City Press asked Syria's Bashar Ja'afari about the US quote, he said it proves the US is "protecting those who perpetrate these acts.")
Inner City Press also asked Churkin for Russia's view of the plan to put NATO missiles on Turkey's border with Syria. He quoted foreign minister Lavrov, that weapons brought into a conflict zone tend to then be used. Then attention turned to the afternoon's Palestine Observer State.
