On UN Security Council's Syria Presidential Statement, Elected Ten Members Got Only 18 Hours, Ogwu Told Inner City Press E10 Want More Input

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 16 -- On the UN Security Council's Syria Presidential Statement, now slated to be adopted “unanimously” with Venezuela disassociating itself as Lebanon when it was a member of the Council did on Syria, an issue still unresolved and unreformed is the exclusion of Elected Ten members from negotiations.

  Inner City Press asked Nigeria's Ambassador Joy Ogwu about this on August 14, if the Elected Ten members of the Security Council should  be brought into negotiating documents earlier, Video here, from 2:43.

   Ambassador Ogwu said, on UNTV camera, “That’s an aspiration of the ten elected members. There should be more participation.”

  In this case, until Venezuela objected, they were given a mere 18 hours. What is the point of running for a seat on the Security Council if rubber stamping is all that's expected of you?

  This paragraph, and its compliance or non-compliance with Syria's constitution, was and is at issue:

“10. The Security Council demands that all parties work urgently towards the comprehensive implementation of the Geneva Communiqué, aimed at bringing an end to all violence, violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law and the launching of a Syrian-led political process leading to a political transition that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people and enables them independently and democratically to determine their future, including through the establishment of an inclusive transitional governing body with full executive powers, which shall be formed on the basis of mutual consent while ensuring continuity of governmental institutions.”

  Disassociation, allowing it to be adopted as unanimous while a member can disavow it, may solve a problem for this particular text. But other ongoing dysfunctions of the Security Council continue. Watch this site.



Back on August 7 the Security Council on August 7 a resolution to establish a so-called accountability mechanism for the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Outside the Council before and after the unanimous vote on August 7, Russia's ambassador Vitaly Churkin referred to a Presidential Statement he said may be adopted early next week, to support UN envoy Staffan de Mistura's work.

  Inside the Council after the vote, Syria's Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari began his speech with a reference to the 70th anniversary of the US dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He went to to say the UN never investigated the use of chemical weapons, by rebels he said, in Khan al Asal.

   In its resolution the Security Council “recalls that in its resolution 2118, it decided that the Syrian Arab Republic and all parties in Syria shall cooperate fully with the OPCW and the United Nations.” It seems doubtful that ISIS will cooperate.

   Churkin in his post-vote speech inside the Council said that “the existing mechanics of the UN and OPCW do not have a mandate to identify those participating in such acts. Moreover, we became witnesses of the many politicized statements in this regard, which were clearly meant to be propaganda. It was necessary to eliminate this gap, which was done with the adoption of today’s resolution... Any efforts in the Syrian area must be in line with assisting a search for a political solution to the conflict.”

   Inside the Council, US Samantha Power delivered this speech. At the stakeout, questions were given to Reuters, Al Hurra (really, France 24, by mistake), and Voice of America. (We'll have a separate piece on Power's response to the Press' final question about Burundi. For now, here's previous stakeout, sit-down.

   After the meeting ended, on the steps leading out from the UNSC stakeout, Churkin said “I hope it will translate into our continued joint work on the political front. We are working, I think very well, on a PRST [Presidential Statement] in support of Staffan de Mistura’s efforts. I hope it will be adopted...” More on InnerCityPro.com.
   

At UN on Syria PRST, Online Here, Silence Extended to 2:30, Probe Dropped

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, August 3 -- On Syria a series of compromises in the UN Security Council led to a Presidential Statement, not resolution, slated forpossible adoption at 3 pm on Wednesday.

Inner City Press has obtained the final draft, and puts it online here.

At 12:45, Hardeep Singh Puri, the Council's president for August, told Inner City Press that the silence procedure on the draft had been extended from 1 to 2:30. He called adoption "doable."

The European members had proposed a resolution, but settled for a Presidential Statement. Russian Permanent Representative Vitaly Churkin told the press that this so-called PRST was a format more appropriate for the situation of Syria.

Brazil, operating on the principles of its IBSA grouping with India and South Africa, had on Tuesday proposed a text which condemned violence against security forces. As UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant explained to the Press, the only remaining reference in this direction is a call to end violence by all sides and against "reprisals against state institutions."

The so-called blended text by the UK and Brazil had called for an investigation of human rights violations. This has been removed, Churkin said, adding that it was not a Russia's request.

Inner City Press asked the UK's Mark Lyall Grant about it. He said it came out at the request of "one member... not Russia or China." He declined, at least on the record, to identify which country demanded it come out.

Inner City Press asked Hardeep Singh Puri which country asked for it to come out. It's more complex, he said. The question was who would conduct the investigation. If you say the Syrian authorities are committing the violations, how can they investigate themselves?

A Presidential Statement is said to require 15-0 unanimity: that is, the concordance of Lebanon, which blocked the first proposed Council statement on Syria. Wednesday there was talk of precedents to get around this, talk of China disassociating itself from decision on the demarcation of the Iraq - Kuwait border, and of a UN disassociation "in another way."

Council members were given until 1 pm -- now 2:30 -- to break silence, and if not, to come to a formal meeting at 3 to adopt it. Watch this site.