On Syria, US Worried by Al Nusra, Russia Says They'll Get EU Oil Money

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 24 -- Both the US and Russia expressed concern at the Al Nusra Front in Syria at the UN on Wednesday. But which was more realistic?

  US Ambassador Susan Rice said that Al Nusra is a threat to the Syrian revolution. But even anti-Assad UN sources have estimated to Inner City Press that Al Nusra is half of the effective force of the armed opposition in Syria.

  Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin got more specific. He criticized the European Union's decision to accept and buy oil exports from what Churkin called the “so called liberated areas” of Syria -- the money, he said, will go to the strongest armed groups, like Al Nusra.

  Where does the EU think the money will go? What safeguards if any are in place?

  Churkin denounced what he called the armed opposition's kidnapping of bishops in the so-called liberated zones, and called the pending UN General Assembly resolution, drafted by Qatar and a few others, extremely negative.

  Inner City Press first reported the Qatari draft resolution and put later drafts online; then Inner City Press obtained and exclusively published letters raised objections to the draft, from six Latin American countries, Malaysia, India and South Africa, here.

  While some were saying that Qatar is being urged, “even by the P-3 [France, UK and US], Luxembourg, Germany and Italy,” to withdraw the draft resolution, Inner City Press asked a supporter who said, “no way, that would look terrible.”

  So when's the vote? And will Qatar's proposed language on recognitions of the opposition be removed? Watch this site.

On Syria, Qatar's and Others' UNGA Draft Resolution Inches Forward, Amid Vuk Jeremic's Tribunal Session and Smoke: Scoop

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, April 8 -- As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his German negotiator Angela Kane play chicken with the Syrian government on the scope of the requested chemical weapons probe, another move is afoot at the UN in New York.

  Inner City Press has learned of another Qatar sponsored draft resolution making its way to the UN General Assembly. A draft was completed last Thursday, April 4. Issues include, of course, chemical weapons: and representation, Syria's UN seat, a "first step on that issue," as an Inner City Press source put it.

Also involved in drafting, the sources say, have been Saudi Arabia and the P-3 (France, UK and US, an acronym some use). Last year when Qatar's Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser was President of the General Assembly, the moves were more out in the open.

  When Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari objected, asking under what rule the sponsors were proceeding, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser dismissed the question, saying merely, we have the votes.

Now Vuk Jeremic, Serbia's former foreign minister, is General Assembly President. Ja'afari praised him, here.

  From inside the PGA's Office in the increasingly empty North Lawn Building, where Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser's chief of staff the slayer of Javier Ruperez once held court, Inner City Press is exclusively told of cigar smoking and dark talk.

  Jeremic's focus is on the UN's ad hoc tribunals, the session scheduled for April 10, now with Ban Ki-moon attending between Pope Francis and a Washington visit to Barack Obama. So will Qatar's Syria resolution have to wait? Watch this site.