By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 15 -- After the UN Security Council adopted its resolution on ISIL and the Al Nusra Front on August 15, there was a round of speeches in the Council, then three Q&A stakeouts just outside it. Inner City Press put the resolution online here.
Inner City Press asked UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant to confirm that the resolution does not authorize any military operations. He confirmed this, saying that as to Iraq no Council authorization is needed, since the government is inviting it.
Syrian Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari complained that Lyall Grant had limited the participation not only of Syria but also Iraq -- something that, at least as to the timing of the speeches, Iraq's Permanent Representative confirmed. He made clear, however, that Iraq had input into the resolution, while Syria did not.
Inner
City Press asked and Ja'afari specified that ISIL mades $5 million
“every morning” selling oil through Turkish brokers to customers
in Europe.
Lyall Grant said, in his national capacity, that terrorism in Syria is Assad's fault. But why then isn't ISIL's rise in Iraq the fault of Nouri al-Maliki? What about Kenya? Or Somali? (The Security Council visited, but has yet to speak on the government's and peacekeepers' shutting down Radio Shabelle, as the Free UN Coalition for Access has raised, see here.)
Inner City Press asked Iraq's Permanent Representative Alhakim if his country would like to see US military action beyond protection of Yazidis on Mount Sinjar and of US personnel in Erbil and Baghdad. He handled the question diplomatically, praising the effectiveness of US airstrikes to date.
What does this resolution really accomplish, beyond grandiose call on ISIL to “disband”? The six new names in the Al Qaeda sanctions list could have and probably should have been through the 1267 Committee. But Council members wanted to be seen to be doing something.
“It's like the foreign ministers flying in with one planeload of aid,” as one wag, not this one, put it. “It makes them feel good but it is not the solution.” Watch this site.
