Interesting piece in
Politico about today’s UN Security Council meeting….
Later in New York
Briefings out of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ meeting with the Security Council’s five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — will also be worth watching…. The meeting is currently scheduled for 6 p.m. New York time.
French President Emmanuel Macron took London by surprise, announcing in the French newspaper
Le Journal du Dimanche that France and the U.K. would put forward an emergency U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a safe zone at Kabul airport to allow people to continue to leave Afghanistan.
“Our resolution proposal aims to define a safe zone in Kabul, under U.N. control, which would allow humanitarian operations to continue,” the French president explained. The plan was “about protecting these threatened Afghans and getting them out of the country in the coming days or weeks. We will see if this can be done through the capital’s civilian airport or through neighboring countries.”
More here from my POLITICO colleague Paul Dallison. Later, on a visit to Mosul in Iraq, Macron said: “I cannot see who could oppose enabling the safety of humanitarian operations.”
Reuters has the quotes.
Officials in London say the draft resolution had “been under negotiation” among Security Council members over the weekend “with the aim of adopting it early this week.”
Macron’s early move is seen by some in London as a preemptive strike against the U.S. There are fears in some quarters that Biden might claim credit for an initiative they said has been led by the U.K. and France, one government official told Playbook……