What is the latest from the United Nations?
In this edition of the Global Dispatches Podcast series “UN Correspondent Chat,” Sherwin Bryce-Pease of the South African Broadcast Corporation and I have a wide ranging discussion about happenings at the United Nations. This includes debates and discussions at the Security Council about the deteriorating situation in Libya, why the dispute in Western Sahara is at a key inflection point, how the ongoing ebola outbreak in the Congo is being discussed at the UN, and why the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan will likely shape debates at the UN in the coming months.
This episode is the third installment of my series of chats with in-house UN correspondents about what’s buzzing in Turtle Bay. The idea is to touch base with a UN reporter every six weeks or so to take the temperature around the UN and learn what issues are driving the agenda. As we discuss toward the end of the episode, Sherwin Bryce-Pease, who is UN Bureau Chief, brings a decidedly non-western perspective to certain key issues, like UN reform.
We kick off discussing the recent appearance of Ghassan Salame, the Secretary General’a special envoy for Libya, before the Security Council. Salame had intended to brief the council in progress toward a peace plan, but that plan fell apart in recent weeks as fighting has intensified around Tripoli. Sherwin Bryce-Pease was in the room during that briefing and he describes the scene.
If you have 20 minutes and want to learn what is driving debates at the UN, have a listen.