Week After Mbeki, UN SC Still Silent on Sudans, of Pipelines, Map & Playgrounds

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 16 -- A full week after Thabo Mbeki briefed the UN Security Council about Sudan and South Sudan, the Council has not been able to agree on a Presidential Statement about the situation.

  Among the disputes is whether the Statement should criticize Khartoum for not "accepting Mbeki's map." Khartoum claims it has four supporters, now including Azerbaijan, and even that French Ambassador Gerard Araud, this month's Council president, was critical of another Permanent member's "playground" approach.

  The playground is expanding, both in space and time. 

  On August 15 Security Council experts met on the stalled draft in the Council's consultation room. On August 16 experts wandering the North Lawn told Inner City Press they were still working on it. Talks were said to be bilateral, with the expectation of "coming back together at a higher level" to make decisions on language still left open.

  There is a difference, it is pointed out, between demilitarizing a zone and agreeing on a final border.

  Still, as South African Permanent Representative Baso Sangqu told Inner City Press on Thursday, it is important that the Council agree on a statement soon, so that the parties don't think the Council is divided.

  On August 15 when Inner City Press asked Araud about Darfur, he answered that the Council IS divided on this issue, as on Syria and Israel - Palestine. Sudan / South Sudan was supposed to be one of the issues on which the Council works together. So what's happening?

  Meanwhile, Japan's Toyota Tsusho Corporation has put in a $5 billion bid to build an oil pipeline linking South Sudan to the proposed Kenyan port of Lamu, bragged Dennis Awori, Chairman of Toyota Kenya Limited.

  When Japan sent a few people to the UN Mission in South Sudan UNMISS, the UN hyped it up and media covered it. But this is a more real and telling connection: follow the money. Watch this site.

At UN, Weakness of Quartet on Palestine Decried, Blair & Syria in the Wings

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 25 -- As the Security Council gathered Wednesday for its periodic group therapy on the Middle East "and the questions of Palestine," with 41 speakers signed up, topics ranged from Syria and the bombing in Bulgaria to the Quartet, Palestine's debt and Israel's treatment of migrants.

UN envoy Robert Serry spoke first, saying among other things that the Palestinian Authority owes some $1.1 billion to banks, which he did not identify.

Palestine's Observer Riyad Mansour, his arm in a sling, ranged from detentions to settlements to a denunciation of the "so-called 'Levy Committee report,' a right wing, Israeli government appointed committee that... recommends the Israel legalize 'outposts,' a recommendation that defies international law."

Mansour ended by telling July's Security Council president Nestor Osorio of Colombia, "Muchas gracias."

Israel's Deputy Permanent Representative Heim Waxman began with the bombing in Bulgaria -- whose Permanent Representative has yet to express agreement with Israel's theory of the case -- and shifts to the treatment of bloggers in the West Bank, adding that the International Monetary Fund says the GDP in Gaza grew 20 percent in 2011.

The US was represented by Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who started with Syria and chemical weapons, shifted to Lebanon and then to "comprehensive Middle East peace." Might this include a Security Council trip to Palestine? One wag said, "Not before November."

Pakistan brought up the trip and invitation, saying that the trip should take place.

France's Gerard Araud speechified about Syria, saying that France will continue to support the opposition, including on the ground. One wondered, as in Libya, where France air dropped weapons into the Nafusa mountains, while now presenting itself with clean hands in the Arms Trade Treaty talks?

South Africa's Baso Sangqu extended things into Israel's treatment of African migrants, and then asked the question of the UN's weak role in the Quartet. We note, including on the issue of Palestine's debt to banks, that Quartet envoy Tony Blair is also back by JPMorgan Chase.

When the Council broke for lunch at 1:30, ten Arab Ambassador came to the televised stake out. Mansour asked Inner City Press, "Where are your colleagues?" 

But after Saudi Arabia's Permanent Representative read a statment denouncing settlements and saying the Security Council trip should take place, he tried to leave without taking any questions.

"What about the Quarter," Inner City Press asked, "should it continue?"

The Saudi Ambassador stopped and replied, it should continue, but take up its responsibilities.

Syria, it should be noted, as not in this line up, but is scheduled to speak inside the Security Council on Wednesday afternoon. They often note that sessions said to be on Palestine are taking into other issues, now mostly Syria itself. Expect fireworks -- watch this site.