On Syria, Assad Won't Take Call from Ban, Draft Resolution Stalled

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 10 -- With a resolution on Syria stalled in the UN Security Council, and the Council now scheduled on June 16 to vote to recommend Ban Ki-moon for a second term as Secretary General, Ban has tried to call Syria's Bashar Al-Assad. But Assad has not taken his call, his staff telling Ban that Assad is “not available.”

Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky to confirm this on June 10, just after the Security Council set its schedule to recommend a second term for Ban and kept the draft resolution at the “experts level,” with no vote on June 10.

Nesirky confirmed it, that Ban has been trying to call Assad, without success. While he may think this makes Assad look bad, to others it highlights the low profile of Ban Ki-moon, or of the UN under Ban Ki-moon. Is this why the veto-wielding Permanent Five members of the Security Council want to give Ban a second term?

Meanwhile on the resolution, German Permanent Representative Peter Wittig told the Press that it remains at the experts level. Asked if he is as frustrated with the position, for example, of Brazil as the US' Susan Rice is, Wittig declined to criticize. We are talking with them, Wittig said. We'll see.