By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 28 -- Deputy ministers from India, Brazil and South Africa, the so-called IBSA, intend soon to fly to Damascus and address the situation in Syria, South Africa's Permanent Representative Baso Sangqu told the Press on Thursday.
“This will have nothing to do with the Security Council at all,” he said, even though the three country's current sit on the Council.
Sangqu said it will be “a trilateral engagement with the Syrian government... Demarche them, encourage them, see where they are on a number of things... As IBSA. Probably deputy ministers will be going to Damascus, it should be soon... to assist them to overcome the difficulties that they have.”
Yesterday Inner City Press exclusively reported that the three countries were preparing a joint “demarche” on Syria, and quoted Western sources as complaining this was a way to take pressure off from supporting the European proposed resolution on Syria that is languishing in the Council.
After a Council closed door consultation with UN political chief Lynn Pascoe on Thursday, a Western spokesman described a “heated... deadlock” on Syria, and Libya, inside the meeting. A list of the number of dead, by day, was read out.
UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant told the Press that “Pascoe confirmed the situation is deteriorating, peaceful protests were being repressed. I made the case that the Security Council should not remain silent at this point, we hope members of the Council would rally to the resolution. If they have alternatives, we should hear about them and the success of those alternatives on achieving an end to the violence and a political dialogue between the government and those protesting going forward.”
Sources in the consultations said that while IBSA has been speaking “for four weeks” about their plans, they haven't yet gone. To some it seems a savvy move; to others it seems to undermine these countries claims to permanent seats on the Council, if they seek to bypass it. Then again, the US did in Iraq, and some say the French have bypassed or gone beyond Council resolutions in Libya. Watch this site.
