By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 22 -- Hour after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was sending to Doha his envoys Al Khatib and Ian Martin, in charge of "post-conflict planning" in Libya, Inner City Press asked Martin when he would go, and asked the Council on Foreign Relations' experts about the UN's performance.
CFR's Robert Danin told Inner City Press that there's been planning in European capitals "but not at UN headquarters, since the UN has to be driven by a strong force to take action.
Inner City Press put the same question to Daniel Serwer of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, who said that European planning, at least by the UK, was on the "civilian side," not policing or peacekeeping. He took issue with Libya being characterized as "post conflict," calling it a "misnomer" when Libya is not yet even fully "post Gaddafi."
Ian Martin, to the surprise of some, was still in New York on Monday afternoon. Inner City Press told him what Serwer had said, contesting his "post-conflict" job title. Martin nodded, and was non-committal in response to repeated press requests that he give a briefing or answer questions.
Others tell Inner City Press that Martin heads Monday night to Doha, and then will see where that will lead. Ban Ki-moon's call Monday morning for a new Security Council mandate won't bear fruit, this people say, for "a week or ten days," after a series of consultations.
Footnote: Earlier on Monday, US President Barack Obama said he's told his UN Ambassador Susan Rice to ask Ban to "use next month's General Assembly to support this important transition" in Libya. While the first step would seem to be to re-credential Ibrahim Dabbashi as Libya's UN Ambassador, some cynics later Monday mused that to get the General Debate to focus on Libya rather than the moves for Palestinian statehood scheduled for September 20 might be one of Obama's motives. Watch this site.
