To Replace Saudi Arabia on UN Security Council, Jordan As Gulf Moves in Lockstep, Human Rights Council Deal Only to Save Face

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, November 7 -- After Saudi Arabia turned up its nose at the UN Security Council seat it without competition won on October 17, Kuwait was identified as a likely replacement. 

  But now Inner City Press has multiply confirmed that Jordan's Permanent Representative to the UN Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein is flying back to Amman to help hammer out the details of Jordan taking the seat. (Inner City Press named Jordan as the replacement back on October 25.)

   Why Jordan?

  While other have not reported it, instead laughably tying it to some deal of Jordan dropping out of the race against Saudi Arabia for a significantly less valuable UN Human Rights Council seat, the reasoning is the Saudi Arabia is the king, literally, of the Gulf.

  If Saudi says no to the Security Council, well placed sources exclusively tell Inner City Press, so must Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. They stand together against Assad of Syria, the logic goes.

  The Human Rights Council to Security Council seat deal mentioned by other media is just a way for Saudi Arabia to try to save face, sources tell Inner City Press.

  Now Jordan has to receive assurances of enough staffing and resources for the Security Council seat. This should be finalized by this weekend, sources tell Inner City Press.

  Longer form analysis of Saudi Arabia's move by this author is available on Beacon Reader, here.

On another note, Inner City Press was impressed by Prince Zeid's position not only on sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers, but also on Sri Lanka military figure Shavendra Silva being on the UN's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations.

While other Permanent Representatives from South Asia who initially told Inner City Press they were opposed to Silva's participation later under pressure recanted, Zeid never did. But the policies, at least in the Security Council, would be coming from Amman. Watch this site.

   

Exclusive: On Saudi UNSC Seat, Arab Group Statement Was Never Agreed To, ICP Is Told, "Reuters Never Called"

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, October 19 -- The Arab Group "press statement" urging Saudi Arabia to "maintain their Membership in the Security Council," e-mailed out Saturday afternoon, was never formally agreed to by the Group, Inner City Press is exclusively told from the Gulf.

  The statement was reported without qualification by Reuters and Agence France Presse, for example, with a Gulf satellite television channel even saying that since no Arab Group member broke the silence procedure, the statement was issued.

  But Inner City Press has learned, at least one member -- surprisingly, from the Gulf -- said it need to consult with its capital. Some other members never formally got the draft statement to comment on or break silence.

  "It's unbelievable," an involved source told Inner City Press, needing anonymity on pain of, well, decapitation. "They all got fooled, Reuters and then. They didn't even check with us. To call it a 'silence procedure' when something is faxed at 11 pm on a holiday, and then sent to the media the middle of the next day is a joke."

  But the hunger not only of Western powers but also of their affiliated media to get Saudi Arabia on the Security Council to take a hard line on Syria and Iran is so great, the source continued, that they cut corners.

  Instead of the most basic fact checking, they launched into paragraphs about the Saudis' supposed motives, to get the attention of the United States, drive the US away from Iran's Hassan Rouhani or toward renewed military threats on Syria. 

 This way, even in reversing course Saudi Arabia could save face, saying they only took the seat because their fellow Arab countries -- minus at least one of course -- begged them to. "We're doing this for you," the Saudis could say.

But what would the "this" be? Urging the same rebels it arms and tells not to negotiate with Assad to go to Geneva Two? Removing or loosening sanctions on Iran? (For more on this,click here for this reporter's longer piece on Beacon Reader, a new feature.)

  Now could the Saudis rely on an Arab Group statement not formally even agreed to, as a basis for playing Hamlet and reversing themselves? Watch this site.

Here is the "Arab Group press release" e-mailed out on October 19, 2013:

"The Arab Group, at level of Ambassadors, Permanent Representatives to the United Nations in New York, discussed in an extraordinary fashion, the situation regarding the position of the Brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regarding their Membership in the Security Council. With our understanding and respect for the position of the Brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we hope that they, which are amongst the blessed who represent the Arab and Islamic world at this important and historical stage, specifically for the Middle East region, to maintain their Membership in the Security Council and continue their brave role in defending our issues specifically at the rostrum of the Security Council."

   

For Syria Chemical Weapons Mission, Ban Ki-moon Proposes Trust Fund in Cyprus, Health Like Haiti, Security Like Somalia

https://twitter.com/FUNCA_infBy Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 7 -- On Syria chemical weapons, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's ten page letter to the UN Security Council dated October 7 raises more questions than it answers.

Who will pay for the mission? Who will staff it?

  Ban says a "trust fund" will be established. Will the Gulf countries already financing extremist rebels be invited to contribute to this fund, as they have sponsored new Lounges in Ban's UN, and even paying for people Ban wanted to layoff to remain on, photocopying UN document in a basement as exclusively reported by Inner City Press, here?

  Also on finance, Ban says the financial support base of the mission will be in Cyprus -- ironic given that country's fiscal meltdown and IMF bail-in.

  On Phase Three of his plan, Ban seems to open the door to personnel or troops of many countries to come in. He is already bragging of Syria's under UN and OPCW supervision using "cutting torches & angle grinders." 

  But apparently something more serious, and less Syrian, will be required later on. But who will deploy there? And what will be the Syrian government's role?

  Ban's letter brags that OPCW will be under the UN's "Security Management System." 

  Slim comfort, given the attack on the UN in Mogadishu -- which, while whitewashed by others, we continue to note was preceded by the UN Mine Action Service under David Bax turning itself over to US intelligence agencies to collect genetic and biometric information, making itself a party to an armed conflict as in the Congo and prospectively Syria.

  Ban offers assurances of the UN system's seriousness on health issues. But his dismissal of claims that the UN brought cholera to Haiti, killing over 8,000 people, and bogus report exonerating Herve Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping, call this into question.

  Ban, after turning in his letter, is heading off on another junket to Hungary and Asia. The OPCW said it would hold a press conference on October 8, then without explanation moved it to October 9. The Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info has noted that it should allow questions from journalists online, as for example the IMF does. But we'll see. Watch this site.