By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, June 28, updated -- The Security Council's resolution on the UN Disengagement Observer Force UNDOF, initially scheduled to be adopted June 28, has been delayed amid whether and how to reflect recent events in Syria.
A special consulation on the UNDOF resolution began June 28 at 11 am, with a slew of Deputy Permanent Representatives including France's, South Africa's, Bosnia's and Russia's Pankin rushing in.
When Russia said late on June 23 that they had put their version of the resolution on the UN mission UNDOF “into blue,” some other Security Council members disagreed.
A full 24 hours later, a Western Council member told Inner City Press that Russia hadn't really put a text into blue, just the “idea of what the Secretariat would have proposed.”
This Western member predicted that after the June 27 consultations on the American draft, when UNDOF came up for a vote then scheduled for June 28, there would be a procedural vote on Russia's, to declare it not blue, not the first.
But an expert in Council procedure consulted by Inner City Press disagreed. What Russia did was within the definition of being “in blue,” the expert said and predicted that Russia's draft would have to be voted on first.
While some questioned Russia's tactic, other defended it as adhering to tradition in terms of “substance if not form.”
On June 27, Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative Pankin told Inner City Press, “Our text is on the table.” He said that a June 28 vote was possible, but that it did not need to be done before the end of the month.
On June 28 it emerged that UNDOF would not be voted on that morning. Instead, a round of consultations with DPRs was held.
Back on June 24, the Security Council adopted a press statement on Yemen, expressing concern at violence and welcoming the GCC mediation. On Syria, a press statement was blocked by Lebanon, as a presidential statement may now be. The composition of the Council has its effect. Watch this site.
Footnote: meanwhile Inner City Press has his morning published a letter to the editor about Syria strategy from US Under-Secretary for State Judith McHale, click here to view.
Update of 11:35 am -- it's said that the Russian and US texts are blending, with reference to what has happened in UNDOF's Golan Heights area, but others -- "France and the UK," a source tells Inner City Press -- want to refer to "broader Syria."
