On Syria, Draft UN General Assembly Resolution Nods to Opposition, Chemical Weapons Probe, Text Here, Scoop

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 9 -- Yesterday Inner City Press first reported on the draft UN General Assembly resolution on Syria being prepared by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and others.Click here for that.

Now that others are re-reporting that, Inner City Press is publishing the draft, here.

For six pages -- 21 perambulatory paragraphs, followed by 29 more -- the draft resolution is nearly entirely directed at the government of Bashar al Assad.

  It recalls “all meetings of the group of friends of the Syrian people, in particular the fourth Ministerial Meeting held in Marrakech on 12 December 2012, where the participants acknowledged the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and opposition Forces as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.”

  The draft goes on to welcome “the establishment of the National Coalition of the Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces on 11 November 2012 in Doha, State of Qatar, notes the wide international acknowledgment of the Coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.”

The draft “demands that the Syrian authorities provide full and unfettered access to the Secretary-General’s investigation into all alleged use of chemical weapons and calls on all parties to cooperate with the investigation.”

Ban Ki-moon's negotiator Angela Kane, as Inner City Press first reported, has herself been under investigation, for irregularities in the UN's UMOJA program. We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

On Syria, Saudi Resolution Cites Chemical Weapons, ICP Obtains Draft, Puts Online Here

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 -- An hour after Saudi Arabia's Permanent Representative Abdallah al-Mouallimi told Inner City Press that the Syria resolution he is drafting will be presented to the General Assembly "next week, Monday," Inner City Press obtained the draft, and is now putting it online here.

  The draft resolution, of course, deplored and denounced, and mentions chemical weapons:

"7. Demands that the Syrian authorities strictly observe their obligations under international law with respect to chemical and biological weapons, including the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, signed at Geneva on 17 June 1925"

  This 1925 signing was cited by Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin this week on the Charlie Rose show. TheSaudi draft goes on and

"further demands that the Syrian authorities refrain from using, transferring, producing, developing or otherwise acquiring any chemical or biological weapons or any related material, and that the Syrian authorities meet their obligation to account for and secure all chemical and biological weapons and any related material."

Again, the General Assembly cannot impose sanctions or authorize any use of force. Its credential committee can withdraw accreditation, as it did for diplomats representing Gaddafi's Libya and the Cote d'Ivoire of Laurent Gbagbo.

In Syria, UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous is already dismantling the observer mission which the Security Council extended for a month back on July 20.

Both Saudi Arabia and Qatar, whose former Permanent Representative is now President of the General Assembly, are widely reported to be arming the rebels in Syria. They stand accused, too, of involvement with the extremist who are destroying mausoleums in Timbuktu in northern Mali. Whatever the legality, they now have another GA resolution.

Saudi's Ambassador also spoke on July 25 at the UN stakeout about Palestine. Inner City Press asked him about the effectiveness of the Quartet and whether it should continue. He stopped and said, on camera, it should continue, but take up its responsibilities. Watch this site.