By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 9 -- After weeks of Lakhdar Brahimi saying he wanted to quit as Joint Special Representative on Syria, and reports that he'd said he planned to leave by the end of May, on Thursday UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson said his boss Ban Ki-moon asked Brahimi to stay on, "and he has accepted to stay on."
So was it all a ploy? Will the UN or Brahimi now claim that it was the threat of quitting that brought the US and Russia together to announce a plan?
There has been a lot of spin. After Monday's meeting between Ban and the Permanent Five members of the Security Council, reference was made to Brahimi's threat to quit. But since then, one of the attendees has denied that account, has even accused a particular Mission and pass-through media of "lying." (To give credit, Eliasson was responding to this media's question.)
But now Brahimi is staying on! So what if its Carla Del Ponte said one thing -- "strong suspicions" of sarin gas use by the Syrian rebels -- and this was immediately attacked by the US and UK, and undercut by other parts of the UN system? (Click here for Inner City Press story & video.)
The UN is relevant again, or feels itself relevant again! Click here for Inner City Press' latest on the pending General Assembly resolution, and watch this site.
