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UN diplomatic spat as Syria calls Qatari assembly head "biased"

Arab World Materials 6 April 2012 01:33 (UTC +04:00)
The embattled ambassador of Syria to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, on Thursday denounced the president of the UN General Assembly, who is from Qatar, for "defaming" his country by not allowing him to speak in a meeting, dpa reported.
UN diplomatic spat as Syria calls Qatari assembly head "biased"

The embattled ambassador of Syria to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, on Thursday denounced the president of the UN General Assembly, who is from Qatar, for "defaming" his country by not allowing him to speak in a meeting, dpa reported.

Jaafari asked for the right to speak at a meeting of the 193-nation assembly to hear UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on his latest diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in Syria. The assembly president, Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser, ignored the request.

Jaafari also asked al-Nasser to hold a minute of silence for what he called "all the victims" of the conflict in Syria. That request was also ignored.

"The president of the General Assembly is biased and cheated on us," Jaafari told reporters. "It was a pre-fabricated meeting to defame Syria by Qatar and Saudi Arabia."

During the closed-door meeting of the assembly that followed Annan's address, al-Nasser allowed only the envoys from Saudi Arabia and the European Union to speak.

Jaafari accused al-Nasser of carrying out a Qatari and Saudi Arabian "agenda" against his country, saying that al-Nasser "violated" UN meeting procedures.

"These violations confirmed that the president of the General Assembly imposed and dictated rules on behalf of Qatar and Saudi Arabia," Jaafari told reporters.

The UN said the assembly meeting was an informal one and procedures need not be followed.

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