Syrian Coalition's Khoja Admits to Inner City Press FSA's "Tactical Alliance" with Al Nusra Front, No Child Soldiers Answer

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 29 -- When Khaled Khoja, as new president of the Syrian National Coalition, held a UN press conference on April 29, Inner City Press asked him about the Free Syrian Army working with Jabhat al Nusra, and the UN reports that the FSA has recruited and used child soldiers.

  Khoja acknowledged that the FSA has had "tactical alliances" with al Nusra, for example in Idlib. He said the ties are exaggerated, including by "media of the regime." But given that Nusra is a UN-designated terrorist group, what to make of these alliances?

  The question on FSA child soldiers was not answered. Khoja said that the US train and equip program for now does not benefit the FSA. 

Back on April 24 when the UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura came to the UN Security Council stakeout, Inner City Press asked him if the Saudi-led airstrikes on Yemen changed any of the dynamics on Syria. 

  In reply, de Mistura told Inner City Press that "everything in the region these days is connected." He added that he is focused on Syria.

 Inner City Press also asked de Mistura about criticism made by his former adviser Mouin Rabbani on Qatar's Al Jazeera TV, that Mistura is out of his depth and not up for the task.

 De Mistura replied, I will not respond, you would do the same, if one of your ex-colleagues...

  Inner City Press asked the question because it hadn't been asked, tellingly.  Now Inner City Press has heard more; watch this site.

 Dina Kawar said Mistura “mentioned what he will do next month in Geneva, holding separate meetings with the Syrian parties, representatives of the civil society and regional and international actors. He will provide his assessment to the Secretary General and keep the Security Council informed,” Kawar said, taking no questions.

  Staffan de Mistura emerged, saying he would take two or three questions. He said, “the only way is to test, a stress test,” a phrase like his previous “freeze.” He said, “by end of June we should be in the position to reassess whether any convergence on substance and report to the Secretary General.”

  De Mistura said, “This is not Geneva Three, this is a series of consultation, one to one. We can convene and ask everyone to come and not exclude anyone.. Iran is a member country of the UN, it is a major play in the region, it has influence in Syria. The UN has the right, and will be inviting everyone.”

  Unlike Montreux, it was observed by... one wag.

  Back on April 16, that the Syrian chemical weapons victim and doctor who briefed the UN Security Council did so behind closed doors, with no UN Television coverage, was a product of the Council's rules.

  It was an “Arria formula” meeting, which was not be listed in the UN Journal or even on the blue electronic signs outside it. (The sign said the meeting was about "nutrition.")

  Afterward chemical weapons victim Qusai Zakarya took some questions in the hall, before again going behind closed doors of the UN Censorship Alliance, see below.

  Inner City Press in this public space asked Qusai Zakarya what he thought of UN envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura.

Qusai Zakarya said replied to Inner City Press, "I think Staffan de Mistura is a hypocrite. I think his very disgusting attempt to shine up the image of the regime is exposed to the Syrian poeple and to a nlot of members of the international community. His offer on freezes was a joke. If he really cared about saving lives he would have convinced the regime to stop using its fire power. We have a lot of outrage against his attempts, the deal he was trying to offer, it's just another false attempt to shine up the image of the regime."

   Inner City Press asked him if he would meet with any UN official. “I can't answer that questio right now,” he said. Then the convoy went to the clubhouse of the UN Censorship Alliance, which had sent notice only to those who pay it money: "They will have just presented their accounts in front of the UN Security Council at an Arria-formula meeting on Syria Chemical Weapons."

     But why would the doctors, in holding a supposed press conference afterward, not do so in the UN Press Briefing Room on UNTV, as can be done by any NGO or individual as long as sponsored by a member state? 

On Child Soldiers, Free Syrian Army Still A Listed Recruiter, Zerrougui Tells Inner City Press, As Syria Says It Was Given A Late Invite to Meeting

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 26 -- It was the day before Thanksgiving with Children and Armed Conflict in Syria was the topic of a closed door meeting in the UN's basement.

  The November 26 UN Journal listed

"Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict
15:00 to 16:00 51st meeting (closed) Conference Room 7"

   Inner City Press inquired and learned that Syria's Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari had been informed of and invited to the meeting, only at 11 am on November 26, according to him. At his request, the meeting was moved back for a half hour.

  The goal of the meeting was to adopt the conclusions of the "new" conclusions on Syria -- which according to Ja'afari cover only 2013, and thus not the Security Council's resolutions on ISIL and Al Nusra. 

  Inner City Press asked Ja'afari, when he came out of the meeting, if the previously reported recruitment of child soldiers by the Free Syrian Army remains in. No, he said. He said he objected to the conclusions being adopted.

  Why are this committee's meetings routinely closed? That is why this first part of the story is based on Ja'afari, who was willing to speak. 

 When the meeting broke up, Inner City Press asked the UN's envoy on Children and Armed Conflict Leila Zerrougui if the Free Syrian Army still recruits child soldiers. They are still listed, she replied. She explained the timing of the meeting as related to the coming January 1 changes in the Security Council -- committee chair Luxembourg is leaving the Council - and an upcoming trip to the DR Congo.

  Ja'afari complained to Inner City Press that while his government is accused of not cooperating, it invited the UN Monitoring Team to visit the site of a bombed school in Homs but they declined, citing their holidays.

  Inner City Press asked Zerrougui about this and she said she would check. Watch this site.

    Zerrougui on back July 1 took questions about her most recent report, on which Inner City Press reported on May 14, including the ten paragraphs over three pages about Syria. 

  Since then, the US Obama Administration has announced a plan for $500 million to the "vetted" Syrian opposition: presumably, the "Free Syrian Army."

  As to this Free Syrian Army the UN report states that "most children associated with the FSA-affiliated group, as young as 14 years, indicated that they had received weapons training and 4,000 to 8,000 Syrian pounds pay per month. 

   Examples are given: "a 17 year-old boy who joined the al-Murabiteen battalion of the Falloujat Houran FSA brigade in Bosra al-Sham, Dara'a Governate, reportedly received a fifteen-day weapons training in al-Lajat valley close to Bosra al-Sham."

  Also, "In June 2013, two brothers, aged 16 and 17, joined the FSA-affiliated Majd al-Islam brigade in Dara'a, where they cleaned weapons and performed security duties."

 So on July 1, Inner City Press asked Zerroughui about the FSA. She said “we put 'FSA and affilaited groups,' because some groups at not entirely under the control of the FSA, but they are not distancing themselves from the FSA.”

 Inner City Press asked Zerroughui is she'd raised this to the US. “Yes, I did with the US, I visiting Washington and raised the issue, the Child Act was discussed.” 

That's the US 2008 Child Soldiers Prevention Act, which provides for example:

It is the sense of Congress that— 

 (1) the United States Government should condemn the conscription, forced recruitment, or use of children by governments, paramilitaries, or other organizations; 

 (2) the United States Government should support and, to the extent practicable, lead efforts to establish and uphold international standards designed to end the abuse of human rights described in paragraph (1); 

  There are prohibitions on funding which can only be overridden for formal, public findings in a waiver by the President. Would or will that be used in this case? Watch this site.

   

At UN Syria's Ja'afari Denounces Censorship and Gets Cut Off, No Answer from Ban Ki-moon New Spokesperson Dujarric

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 14 -- On Syria, the UN hyped up Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's briefing to the General Assembly on March 14, and then didn't televise any of it, nor the reply by Syrian Ambassadar Bashar Ja'afari.

  Ja'afari came out to the stakeout and criticized the blackout, and Ban Ki-Moon and his envoy Lakhdar Brahimi for offering "no hint of terrorism."

  Soon some at the stakeout tried to cut in, as they wouldn't with Ban Ki-moon. Video here, from Minute 6:23. Ja'afari told them if they wanted to leave, they could. He denounced Saudi Arabia, perhaps pointedly at one of the interveners.

  Ironically, later on March 14 the Syrian Coalition was given a long, uninterrupted press conference not at a stakeout that any UN journalist could attend, but in the United Nations Correspondents Association clubhouse, a room the UN gives to Gulf and Western journalists. See this debate.

  Before the cut-off attempts, Ja'afari alleged that Qatar paid millions of dollars to Al Nusra for the released of the Ma'aloula nuns, in violations of a recent Security Council resolution on the topic. He spoke against unilateral sanctions, saying they are only supported by the US "and the Marshall Islands, or Kiribati."

  Previously, Ja'afari was cut off UNTV, when Stephane Dujarric was in charge of it. Click here for that. Now, Dujarric is Ban Ki-moon's spokesman, and suddenly the Syrian National Coalition, unlike in September, is back in the UNCA club. Meanwhile questions Inner City Press sent to Duarric, not only about Nigeria and UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous but also about the apparently disappearing of UN video, have gone unanswered. This is the new UN. Watch this site.