By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, November 7 -- After Saudi Arabia turned up its nose at the UN Security Council seat it without competition won on October 17, Kuwait was identified as a likely replacement.
But now Inner City Press has multiply confirmed that Jordan's Permanent Representative to the UN Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein is flying back to Amman to help hammer out the details of Jordan taking the seat. (Inner City Press named Jordan as the replacement back on October 25.)
Why Jordan?
While other have not reported it, instead laughably tying it to some deal of Jordan dropping out of the race against Saudi Arabia for a significantly less valuable UN Human Rights Council seat, the reasoning is the Saudi Arabia is the king, literally, of the Gulf.
If Saudi says no to the Security Council, well placed sources exclusively tell Inner City Press, so must Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. They stand together against Assad of Syria, the logic goes.
The Human Rights Council to Security Council seat deal mentioned by other media is just a way for Saudi Arabia to try to save face, sources tell Inner City Press.
Now Jordan has to receive assurances of enough staffing and resources for the Security Council seat. This should be finalized by this weekend, sources tell Inner City Press.
Longer form analysis of Saudi Arabia's move by this author is available on Beacon Reader, here.
On another note, Inner City Press was impressed by Prince Zeid's position not only on sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers, but also on Sri Lanka military figure Shavendra Silva being on the UN's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations.
While other Permanent Representatives from South Asia who initially told Inner City Press they were opposed to Silva's participation later under pressure recanted, Zeid never did. But the policies, at least in the Security Council, would be coming from Amman. Watch this site.
