Counterterrorism Blog

Yesterday, the U.N.'s Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General was asked whether the Secretary General had any statement to make about the British hostages held in Iran, and the spokesman said there is no comment. When a reporter then asked if the lack of comment should be interpreted as “he does not wish to comment because of delicate ongoing negotiations,” the Deputy Spokesperson agreed with that characterization. Following on the heels of a historically weak sanctions resolution (see Victor Comras' post on Sunday), the lack of action or statements to date is not encouraging. Victor suggests that we wait for the British to come to the U.N., which he assumes will happen within a very few days if Iran doesn't release the hostages. He noted to me that British Ambassador Jones-Parry made no comment about the seizure in his statement in the Security Council after the Iran sanctions vote, and Jones-Parry devoted his remarks solely to the sanctions resolution and the need to get Iran to respect IAEA norms. Fair enough.

But even if the Iranian seizure were legal under international law, the lack of access by British embassy officials to the hostages is not. That issue should be the subject of an immediate statement by the new U.N. Secretary-General during this, the first international crisis which started on his watch. After all, another spokesperson said today that the U.N. has asked the Saudi government to grant a visa to all reporters traveling with the Secretary-General, including a French-Israeli journalist whose visa has been denied thus far (which says a lot about the Saudis' continued intolerance of all things Israeli). The Secretary-General could have addressed the lack of access in an off-the-cuff press conference after a meeting yesterday on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, but didn't use that opportunity.

So the U.N. stands up for reporters' visas but not for the hostages' right to meet with their embassy. The least the Secretary-General could do is demand that the Iranians allow a U.N. representative to meet with the hostages. On top of the weak resolution, the silence indicates to me that we shouldn't expect much statesmanship from the U.N. or the new Secretary-General at any point in this affair.