By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, June 10 -- Immediately after the UN General Assembly adopted a declaration on HIV / AIDS, the Syrian Permanent Representative took the floor and denounced it, ostensibly on behalf of the Arab Group.
Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said the Arab Group objected to the listing of vulnerable groups in Paragraph 29, saying that such designations are up to member states and their “national characteristics.”
Outside the General Assembly, Inner City Press was approached by Lebanon's expert on the AIDS negotiations, who said that Syria did not speak for all of the Arab Group in what it said.
“He was speaking for himself,” the Lebanese expert said of Ja'afari, even mentioned what Syria is going “on the ground,” referring to the killing of protesters. (This last seemed strange, as Lebanon blocked even a press statement in the Security Council about Syria.)
But didn't the Arab Group have consultations on what they would say in the General Assembly and who would say it? The Lebanese expert said that Ja'afari had not been authorized to say what he did.
By then, Ja'afari had left the General Assembly. The Holy See denounced condoms; the mining firm Anglo American somehow finagled an invitation to promote itself in the name of “civil society.”
Inner City Press stood outside the GA, asking about the controversy diplomats from countries in all continents. Some said that Iran, at least, had been more honest, delivering its denunciation of “risky and immoral behavior” in its name alone.
Inner City Press asked UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibe about Iran's speech. He replied that he will keep speaking out on these “controversial” topics, continue to work on it. There's much work to be done in Iran, he was asked -- “a lot,” Sidibe replied. And then he was gone.
