By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 14 -- Just before the Syria session of the UN General Assembly, Syrian Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari stopped and told Inner City Press that at end of his speech he would make an unexpected move.
And after Qatar's ambassador spoke in favor of the resolution his country drafted (and re-drafted several time), Ja'afari did deliver on his pledge.
At the end of his speech he said that there an e-mail, from the representative of the Syrian opposition given Syria's embassy in Qatar, showing their involvement in the kidnapping of UN peacekeepers by the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade. He read out a phone number from the e-mail.
Outside the GA, Inner City Press asked UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant about Ja'afari on the e-mail. Lyall Grant called it confused. Another Permanent Representative, from a Troop Contributing Country, said that if true, it's very problematic.
When Secretary General Ban Ki-moon thanked Qatar for its role in the release of the UN Peacekeepers, is this what he meant? Inner City Press asked then, and will ask again. Watch this site.
