UNITED NATIONS, April 8 -- After a proposal to add 10 Libyan oil companies and eight banks, among others, to the UN Security Council's sanctions list was put out for five days to comment, three countries ended up objecting and blocking the new listings.
That Russia and China objected was not unexpected. But, according to sources in the Sanctions Committee, the United States also objected.
The senior source, while surprised that the Obama administration would effectively block additional Libya sanctions, offered as an excuse that the US wanted to “dot all the i's and cross the t's” so that the sanctions listing would up to judicial review.
But why, the source asked, would China object when the executive branch these is not really subject to judicial oversight?
As previously reported, the list of proposed additional sanctionees include the Libyan Jamahirya Broadcasting Corp, the National Commercial Bank and the Brega, Ras Lanuf, Sirte and Waha oil companies, each “owned or controlled by the Libyan National Oil Corporation,” named in UN Resolution 1973 adopted on March 17.
Inner City Press is told that the United Kingdom has expressed concern about the blocks of the silence period, because no new five day period is triggered. The response for now is that since Resolution 1973 says that the new sanctions have to be in place within 30 days, April 17 is the new deadline. We'll see -- watch this site.
On Libya, Whack Talk in Senate, Silence from UN, Filipina Nurses on Both Sides
By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 6 -- Military action in Libya is ostensibly coordinated by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, under Security Council Resolution 1973. But his name barely came up in the US Senate hearings about Libya on Wednesday.
Rather, Senators asked if Gaddafi should be assassinated, and what is known about the Benghazi based Transitional National Council.
Professor Dirk Vandewalle, whose “History of Modern Libya” makes clear the pre-existing rift between Tripoli and Benghazi -- in fact, the black “royal” flag being flown by the rebels is to some extent a Benghazi flag, as Western created King Sanusi was based there -- acknowledged he knows little about the TNC's 31 members.
Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch, on the other hand, said that the TNC has the type of leaders HRW would select for Libya. Perhaps there was a better way to phrase this: is it HRW's job to select leaders?
After the UN in Geneva released a statement on Libya quoting Ban's key Moon-lighting envoy Al Khatib that the TNC has asked for some UN help to sell oil, no clarification was given.
Khatib, Ban & (Deputy) Spokesman: disclosure of pass & payments not shown
Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky, who claimed that the issue had been addressed when Al Khatib visited the UN on April 4. But the question was about an April 6 UN statement.
Meanwhile, Inner City Press asked the Philippines Permanent Representative to the UN how much Filipinos remain in Libya. Five hundred, he said, mostly nurses, in both Tripoli and Benghazi. They are on both sides. Watch this site.
UN Envoy Al Khatib Is On Board of Jordan Ahli Bank, Links With Libya Central Bank
UNITED NATIONS, March 8 -- In selecting Abdul Ilah al Khatib as the UN's envoy on Libya, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon moved quickly -- maybe too quickly.
Since serving as the foreign minister of Jordan, describe even some close to Ban as an autocracy, al Khatib has served on the boards of director not only of Lafarge Jordan Cement Company but also of Jordan Ahli Bank.
Jordan Ahli Bank is active beyond that country's borders. A sample connection: along with Libyan Foreign Bank, a fully owned subsidiary of the Central Bank of Libya, Jordan Ahli Bank is a top 20 shareholder of Union de Banques Arabes et Francaises.
Could there be conflicts of interest? Did the UN's Ban administration even consider these?
Ban previously claimed that 99% of his officials have made public financial disclosure. But when Inner City Press showed this is not true -- even Ban's close ally Choi Young-jin, his envoy in Cote d'Ivoire, declined to make public financial disclosure -- Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky said Ban's statement had been “metaphorical.”
Now Ban names and injects al Khatib into a struggle about democracy and free press, when as Inner City Press noted yesterday
"Foreign Minister Abd al-Ilah al-Khatib in January initiated a criminal defamation suit against weekly newspaper al-Hilal's editor-in-chief Nasir Qamash and journalist Ahmad Salama. He [al-Khatib] objected to the content of a January article, and said his tribe had threatened to beat up Salama if he failed to take action. The case remains in the courts at this writing."
By what process was al-Khatib vetted and selected? Watch this site.
Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.
Source : Inner City Press
