The best thing about the annual session of the UN General Assembly is that it gives one the opportunity to meet a few hundred heads of states, prime ministers, ministers or ambassadors, all under one dome. Should a man try to otherwise see a quarter of them or less in one whole year, he would be spending all his time on a plane and would no doubt fail. Everyone heard the speech of President Barack Obama, and it is not my view, but that of Ha'aretz, that he is in fact now Barack Netanyahu. When I returned to the hotel, I saw in the lobby the Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa. We exchanged a quick conversation, and tackled issues from the Palestinian application for membership at the UN, all the way to the supplementary elections that will take place in Bahrain two days from now. Then not a few minutes had gone by that King Hamad bin Isa arrived, on his way to a reception hosted by the U.S. President for VIP guests. I told him that I was disappointed in the speech Obama gave, and that it was as if Netanyahu had written it for him. I felt that the King had a similar opinion on the speech, but he was surrounded by his security detail and by both known and unknown people. Then no sooner had the evening come than I saw at the hotel the Deputy Prime Minister of Bahrain Sheikh Mohammed Bin Mubarak, and we talked about Obama's speech and the odds for the success of the Palestinian bid. At the General Assembly Hall, I saw the Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Nasser Al-Sabah, whom I found to be more reassured by the internal political situation in Kuwait than he was a few months ago. By virtue of the alphabetical order, the Iraqi delegation was close to where I was, and I had a quick exchange about the domestic situation there with the Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. I was also pleased to hear Egypt's speech, delivered by Mohamed Kamel Arm, with whom I share the same opinion, and was also pleased to have had spoken with the Secretary General of the Arab League Dr. Nabil Amr, who told me that Israel is negotiating to buy time, not to resolve any problem. The alphabet put us all in the vicinity of one another. In the same row, and side by side, there sat the delegations of Iran then Iraq, while Ireland separated these two countries from the Israeli delegation, located directly in front of the Lebanese delegation - where I usually sit. I noticed along with Majdi Ramadan, of the Lebanese delegation, that the Israelis were rather diligent. There is always someone taking notes during the speeches by the representatives of various states, be they heads of states or even ambassadors, and from China to the smallest island nations in the Pacific. Nevertheless, they take notes to lie, not to tell the truth. They attacked the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and accused him of anti-Semitism even before he spoke, and then tried to misconstrue what he said afterwards. I will not go back to the transcripts as Al-Hayat had quoted these enough, and colleague Raghida Dergham was present ‘extensively' between the UN headquarters and the hotels where the senior guests were staying. Among these guests was the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is a dear personal friend of mine before he is a president, and today, he still insists that I address him, as I always have, as Mam Jalal. Talabani did not change for his friends. I sat next to him during a dinner he had hosted before he left New York the next day. I asked him about the Iraqi government, which is still incomplete, even 18 months after the parliamentary elections. He told me that there is an initiative under his supervision, and that he hopes a breakthrough would materialize within days of his return to Baghdad. To this I say, God willing. Where are the Qataris in all this? They are in fact everywhere. Qatari diplomacy is very active, and this seems to have benefited Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr, whom I saw had lost some weight. I saw him as he rushed from one meeting to another inside the UN headquarters, and as I walked with him, I thought of a saying that applies to Qatar's diplomatic activity: ‘Having fingers in many pies'. I think I saw all those I wanted to see. However, the Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal left before the end of the session, and I sat at the hotel with Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former ambassador to London then Washington D.C. He had written an article in the New York Times that sparked a big controversy, as he warned that U.S. opposition to the Palestinian bid meant losing the special relationship with Saudi Arabia. Before I left for the airport to return to London, I saw the Foreign Minister of the UAE Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, who always opposes what I write, from Iran to Syria, and many other issues. Yet the relationship is strong and ongoing, and he does not withhold information from me. Finally, the headquarters of the United Nations have, for two years now, been undergoing repairs and restorations, meaning that I often get lost amid the rubble, despite 30 years of experience in the building, hall by hall and corridor by corridor. I noticed that the repairs were being conducted in stages, each comprising ten stories. This reminded me of what the Likudnik John Bolton once said, that the building would lose nothing if ten stories were to be removed from it. When I asked around, I was reassured that this extremist is not the contractor for those repairs. [email protected]
