By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, April 27 -- During the public session of the UN Security Council on Syria Wednesday afternoon, a handwritten notes was passed to Lebanon's Ambassador Nawaf Salam which said, as recounted to Inner City Press by its author, “Open meeting was not such a good idea after all.”
Syria, at least publicly, thinks differently. Its Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari told the press after the meeting that a Western attempt to hijack the Security Council's Middle East agenda item had failed.
Inner City Press asked Ja'afari what he estimated the vote count to be in the Security Council. You know the dynamics of the Council, Ja'afari told Inner City Press, if you have the Permanent Five members you can do what you want. He emphasized that Russia and China were with him.
Ja'afari ignored and did not answer Inner City Press' question about Lebanon's position.
But sources in the Council tell Inner City Press that Lebanese Ambassador Nawaf Salam, who later received the above-quoted note, was opposed to the Council issuing any press statement on Syria.
The struggle in Beirut between the Hariris' Future Movement, described by some as supporting the demonstrators in Syria, and those aligned with Hezbollah plays itself out in the positions that Salam takes in New York.
When Inner City Press asked French Ambassador Gerard Araud, usually voluble on Lebanon, what he made of Salam's speech and position during the Council's open meeting, Araud said to “ask Lebanon.”
Communications to Lebanon, as noted, were in writing. And in the UN Security Council things get more surreal, or UNreal, every day.
Footnotes: Araud emphasized to the press France's strategy to hold Assad to account in the UN Human Rights Council -- on which Syria is seeking a seat. The US is opposing Syria's bid, while Ja'afari on Wednesday condemned the US for giving "six million dollars... to Barada TV" based in London. (Ja'afari cited the Washington Post, after saying "don't believe media accounts.") Meanwhile Barada TV says it has an annual budget of only $1 million. We'll have more on all this. Watch this site.
