By Matthew Russell Lee, for InnerCityPro.com
UNITED NATIONS, February 3 — With China taking over the UN Security Council presidency for February, Chinese Permanent Representative Liu Jieyi on February 3 fielded questions from the media. Video here.
The upshot: Liu said no UNSC member has stated an intention to table a new resolution on Palestine, after the last resolution’s failure with only eight votes in favor in late December. Now it seems clear there would be enough Yes votes to require or trigger a US veto. So why not yet?
Liu also made it clear that China does not believe that human rights issues are or should be on the agenda of the Security Council. He said this in response to a question about the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, but afterward off-camera said this was China’s position on all human rights questions.
Inner City Pro, after requesting that he hold question and answer stakeouts after Council consultations, asked Ambassador Liu about the regional fight against Boko Haram, and about Burundi being in the footnotes of the Program of Work for the month.
Ambassador Liu said that China supports African countries’ “rising up” against terrorism and Boko Haram and stands ready to support any such request, saying that other countries should “rally around” it. Inner City Press has previously reported on Chad‘s request for a resolution. How much longer?
Photo: Here’s #China‘s Perm Rep Liu Jieyi doing presser as Feb #UNSC Prez, @FUNCA_info here with Qs pic.twitter.com/svh8ljYwYo
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) February 3, 2015
On Burundi, Ambassador Liu explained that items are put in the footnotes at the request of a Council member, and expressed a desire that Burundi progress with reconciliation, economic and social development (the elections are upcoming.) Other items in the footnotes for this month are Ukraine, Mali and the Central African Republic.
Ambassador Liu was asked if the debate scheduled for February 23 is targeted at any country and said no. He answered a final question about poverty reduction by referring to the post-2015 development goals, noting however that these are beyond the mandate of the Security Council.
Yemen will be considered on February 11 — who will be in charge them? The son of Ali Saleh? The Houthis? Iraq will be considered on February 17; current UN envoy Mladenov is, as Inner City Press first reported on January 30, slated to move to replace Robert Serry as UN Special Coordinator on the Middle East. So who will replace Mladenov in Iraq? Watch this site.