Shut-Down US Government Compared to Lebanon, Feltman's DPA Pitches Maldives, Not Sri Lanka: Report Still Withheld?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 4 -- During this week's shutdown (or slim-down) of the US government, analogies to various other countries and failed states have been made.

  Now former US State Department official Jeffrey Feltman, whom Inner City Press has covered this week in meetings with Iran's Hassan Rouhani and Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati, has brought the analogy home.

  Feltman is quoted as texting Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that he moved on from the US government when it became too much like... Lebanon.

  At the UN, Feltman's Department of Political Affairs is sometimes kept from the biggest ticket items by the big-footing of the Permanent Five members of the Security Council, but it is active on other issues. 

  When on October 2, just before the Security Council's Great Lakes trip which Inner City Press has so far covered here and here took off, DPA at its own request briefed the Security Council about the Constitutional crisis in the Maldives.

  While the UK said that its Commonwealth has already expressed concern at delay in second round of Presidential elections, it should be noted that this Commonwealth still plans to go to Sri Lanka in November for its Heads of Government Meeting.

  Are the UK's concerns consistent? Are Ban Ki-moon's and Feltman's DPA's? Under Ban Ki-moon, did DPA ever ask for a Security Council meeting? Or was it only the British chief of Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes? And what did that come to? And where is Ban Ki-moon's report on the UN's inaction in 2009? Watch this site.

   

As Lebanon PM Mikati Meets UN's Ban Ki-moon, Feltman Not Ladsous or Kane There, & Roed-Larsen of IPI-Bahrain

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 3 -- On very little notice, five minutes' notice to the Press, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met Thursday afternoon with Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati.

It was after 3:30 pm when Ban's spokesperson's office squawked the 4:15 meeting. One has to show up for security screen at least 30 minutes in advance, so only two journalists went up: a wire service photographer and Inner City Press.

In the waiting room there were big bags of potato chips, waiting for a party. Thirty eight stories below UN Security officers were taking down the flags for the day: Pakistan, Palau, Panama. Inner City Press tweeted photo here. Then the door to the meeting room opened.

  Mikati, tall like say Paul Volcker, stooped to sign Ban's book. He was accompanied by Lebanese Permanent Representative and author Nawaf Salam: it was a two person delegation. Inner City Press tweeted photo here.

  The UN on the other hand, or side of the table, had Edmond Mulet for UN Peacekeeping (instead of Herve Ladsous), Valerie Amos on aid, former US official Jeffrey Feltman on politics, and part time UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, also the head of the International Peace Institute which, among other things, opened an office in Bahrain. Tweeted photos here and here.

Angela Kane of UN Disarmament, who attended yesterday's UN meeting with Iranian foreign minister Zarif, was not present.

Mikati has given his "personal assurance" no chemical weapons entered Lebanon. At the day's noon briefing, Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky declined to answer Inner City Press' question about why the UN team under Ake Sellstrom had not gone to Khan al Assal, saying it was in the transcript. But Inner City Press did not find it there. 

 The more difficult they try to make things to find (out), the more effort is re-doubled. Watch this site.