And on February 23, with Inner City Press roped in to cover a meeting in ECOSOC, with UN minder four feet away, Skoog rushed by at 10 am and into the Council. Russia's Nebenzia followed five minutes later, stopping to ask Inner City Press, This is a new stakeout? Only Inner City Press is caged in, for two years for its coverage. But no vote at 11, then none at noon. At 2:30, there was an "E10 coordination meeting." An afternoon of closed door consultations, with non Council members waiting in the chamber, continued past five. Then Skoog said he is disappointed but there will be a vote Saturday at noon, either way. Kuwait's Mansour Al-Otaibi, the president of the Council for February, said the issue is "OP1" - Operative Paragraph 1 - but reiterated, vote Saturday at noon. At that time, US Ambassador Nikki Haley walked into the Council and told the Press, "Today we're going to see if Russia has a conscience." Video here, and tweeted Vine. Full Periscope here, including Syrian Ambassador Ja'afari asking if Al Jazeera is chairing the day's Security Council session.
Inner City Press on February 22 alone staked out an evening meeting of the UN Security Council's Elected Ten members, exclusive video here. Inner City Press asked Sweden's Olof Skoog if the meeting was productive. He said the E10 are always helpful, the "extremes" are represented on the E10. He indicted that a new draft will be put out on February 23. Inner City Press also asked Bolivia and Kazakhstan (which thanked it for asking), and Netherlands which said too early to comment. Back on February 14 published the full text of the UN Security Council's thendraft resolution making that call and more, here on Patreon. Some highlights from the Operative Paragraphs below. On February 21, Russia called a briefing by the UN's Mark Lowcock from Geneva on 12 noon on February 22 (at the February 21 UN noon briefing, no media other than Inner City Press asked any questions, so it seems it doesn't matter); but when will the vote come? The February 22 noon meeting ended with Kuwait urging Syria's Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari to limit himself to five minutes, and Ja'afari and Russia's Nebenzia objecting. Kuwait replied it was relying on "Note 507." Inner City Press asked Nebenzia about it and he said it was impolite, when the meeting was all about Syria. Russia has proposed changes, including a condemnation of shelling from Eastern Ghouta of residential areas in Damascus City,including diplomatic premises. Sweden's Olof Skoog says it's leaning toward February 23. On the morning February 22 outside a meeting about Palestine, correspondents questions were nearly entirely about Syria, with Sweden's Olof Skoog rating the difficulty of the negotiations as 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. (The UN Department of Public Information, apparently distracted by and focused on censoring the Press and serving certain member states, didn't notice there would be press interest in the Palestine meeting, Periscope video here). France's Francois Delattre, who has yet to comment on refoulements to Cameroon, said he is deeply concerned.
