By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, January 15 -- Fifty speakers took on terrorism in the UN Security Council on Tuesday; outside the Council the number of journalists dwindled from three to two down to one. Inside, few of the speakers directly challenged each other.
Israel's Permanent Representative Ron Prosor focused on Hezbollah, a "non state actor." Russia mentioned the Kavkaz Center, criticizing only indirectly Sweden for hosting the group's website.
Syria's Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari was an exception, denouncing Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which he said is aiming to recreate an Ottoman sultanate.
Later outside the Council, Ja'afari stressed to Inner City Press that Turkey "took 1,500 factories and even medical facilities from Aleppo" in Syria and "sold them in Turkey by the kilo." Would there be a right to reply? Qatar and Saudi Arabia were scheduled to speak, perhaps intentionally, as numbers 48 and 50 out of 50.
Qatar as it turned out did not speak; Saudi Arabia concluded that fighting terrorism cannot justify killing civilians. (Sri Lanka Permanent Representative Palitha Kohona had left).
There were two rights of reply: Turkey speaking briefly of its commitment to helping Syrians; Iran taking on Israel and especially Canada.
But before then, there were many other speakers. Venezuela and Cuba zeroed in on Posada's attack on an airliner in 1976. Uganda said it was victimized by Al Shabaab in 2010, and is also faced with the LRA, and the ADF from inside the Congo.
Norway's Permanent Representative Geir O. Pedersen raised the mass shootings of July 2011.
Cote d'Ivoire, near the end, focused on Mali. Ambassador Bamba on his way in stopped to talk to Inner City Press, and invited Chad to come forward with troops.
When Inner City Press raised their concern that a force commander from Nigeria had been selected with no input from outside ECOWAS, Bamba said this could be addressed among the military people. We'll see. Watch this site.
