On Lebanon, Inner City Press Asks UN's Sigrid Kaag Of Aoun's Hezbollah Support As Viewed By Trump, Saudis; MaleSG

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 10 -- The day after Hillary Clinton conceded to Donald Trump as the next US President, on November 10 Inner City Press asked the UN's envoy to Lebanon Sigrid Kaag how she thought the incoming Trump administration, and the Saudis, will view and act on Hezbollah's support for new Lebanese President Michel Aoun. Video here.

  Kaag said she wouldn't speculate but that Lebanon's is not an executive president, that Prime Minister Hariri will play a large and presumably paliative, to Trump and Saudi Arabia, role in Lebanese decision making. (Seems Inner City Press is blocked from Kaag's Twitter, as from the tweets of Ban Ki-moon's son in law, UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya. Is Ban's censorship syndrome spreading?)

 Inner City Press also asked Kaag if she is disappointed that there has still never been a woman... UN Secretary General. She laughed and called Antonio Guterres the best person for the job, committed to general parity, and added that yes, she has met him. Perhaps a daily schedule of the incoming Secretary General - and US President - should be published, the Free UN Coalition for Access opines.


 When Inner City Press got to the United Nations on the morning of November 9, it asked Yemen's Ambassador Khaled Hussein Mohamed Alyemany if he thinks under Trump the US will continue to fuel up Saudi warplanes for their bombing runs. Video here.

He said it's not for him to judge other countries and what happens in them.



   Inner City Press asked Iraq's Ambassador to the UN M A Alhakim about the idea outgoing President Obama will try to speed up action on Mosul and Raqqa before Trump takes over. He said a sped-up process would be good. Vine video here.

   Outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon came to read a statement; his outgoing spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Ban would not take questions. But one was yelled out on climate change; Inner City Press then asked about the criticism of Ban by Senator Bob Corker, a possible Secretary of State, over Ban's weak response to UN peacekeepers' engaged in sexual abuse. Video here; Vine here.

   When Inner City Press had asked Dujarric for Ban's reaction, Dujarric said dismissively that was just the opinion of one person. Impunity is impunity. Dujarric himself helped get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN Press briefing room, its UN office and the UN as a whole, see Paragraphs 9 and 10 of this UN memo to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. We'll have more on this.

In New York City early on the evening of November 8, from the UN on First Avenue to Trump Tower and the Peninsula Hotel on Fifth Avenue (Inner City Press' Periscope video here), the assumption was that Hilary Clinton would win. Then Ohio then Florida then finally Pennsylvania went Trump.

And at 3 am on November 9, after a concession call but not speech by Hilary Clinton, Trump declared victory (and compared Reince to the bronze statue of the horse Secretariat at Belmont race track). Now what?

   Some predict John Bolton as Secretary of State. On TV, they talk of Newt. More nitty gritty some wonder if someone like Brett Schaefer might be UN Ambasssador. (The current UN Ambassador prepared for a victory party - there are still no post- or mid-results photos to mirror those from the Javitz Center).

   In Seoul, South Korea issued statements; from Ban Ki-moon, wannabe South Korean president, there was nothing yet. Earlier a Permanent Representative told Inner City Press, gesturing at the UN campus, If Trump wins, this is all over. We shall cover it, in detail. Watch this site.