THE UN’S TOTAL SILENCE ON EGYPT: CLOSED FOR ALTERCATIONS?
By BENNY AVNI, Special to the Sun | February 11, 2011
http://www.nysun.com/foreign/united-nations-silence-on-revolution-in-egypt-is/87238/
UNITED NATIONS – While the Middle East undergoes a remarkable transformation, one New York spot that remains almost defiantly uninterested – and totally irrelevant – is Turtle Bay. Like the Baskerville Hound, the United Nations won’t bark.
Our ambassador here, Susan Rice, is finalizing a “major address” she’s expected to deliver tonight at Portland, where the World Affairs Council of Oregon is meeting. The title of her address — “Facing 21st Century Threats: Why America Needs the United Nations.”
Good question.
At the height of the Egypt crisis, the General Assembly convened to launch an “international year of forests,” complete with earth shaking rhetoric about the need for tree preservation. In Geneva, the U.N. human rights chief, Navi Pillay, spoke against the use of the death penalty around the world. Members of the Security Council, who are charged with averting threats to international peace and security, leisurely went through the motions of their February schedule.
Washington, wisely, refrained so far from urging any United Nations organ to get involved in its delicate Cairo diplomacy. Uninvolved, the American mission to the U.N. conducted a Monday briefing on America’s forest activities.
How about Secretary General Ban? Reacting to President Mubarak’s resignation, he released a bland statement today, saying, “I respect what must have been a difficult decision, taken in the wider interests of the Egyptian people.” Russia and China criticized earlier statements as interventionist even though they were just as bland.
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