News

After an initial United Nations response to the mass uprising in Egypt of … well, not much… Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has jumped into the fray. On Wednesday and again on Thursday he called for a transition “now.” He wants it to be “very peaceful and orderly” but he wants it to be “done now.” CBS News reports that in his consultation with assorted political leaders, Ban appears to be “building an international alliance to assist Egypt to do so.”

Question: Where was this UN zeal for transition when the people of Iran, braving a regime far more horrific and malign than the dictatorship of Egypt, were bleeding and dying in the streets in June of 2009? When Iran erupted in revolt, Ban faded into the woodwork. As I noted in a column in late June, 2009, “Where’s the UN on Iran?”, Ban first told reporters he was “closely following the situation.” As the carnage continued, with demonstrators denouncing the rigged presidential reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Iranian security forces beating and shooting and arresting them, Ban did not question the legitimacy of the regime. On the contrary, by implication, he supported it, saying that he had “taken note of the instruction by the religious leaders that there should be an investigation into this issue.”