Most Embarrassing UN General Assembly Handshake



As any clever international photographer covering the United Nations General Assembly beat knows, you must be alert at all times. Blinking, yawning or sneezing are verboten. At any moment, any second, a world leader may slip, sloughing off their deeply ingrained political etiquette -- forgetting themselves -- and falling into the communal spirit of international bonhomie that the UN offers, a place where all statesmen are brothers, where everybody knows your name, no matter how corrupt or despotic their regime.

Last week's General Assembly session had it's share of fireworks. A number of politically embarrassing photographs were taken, among them, the above handclasp between tyrannical despot Robert Mugabe, and British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw.

Reuters writes of the diplomatic incident:

"Straw said he had not expected to see Mugabe -- whom advisers say he had never met before.

"'Because it was quite dark in that corner I was being pushed towards shaking hands with somebody just as a matter of courtesy and then it transpired it was President Mugabe,' said Straw who last month swapped his spectacles for contact lenses.

"He said the serious disagreement between Zimbabwe and Britain should not permit discourteous or rude behavior."

There are also -- okay, I am a diplomacy geek -- photos of Iraqi President Alawi shaking hands with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, so writes the Israeli National News:

"Earlier this week, Minister Shalom and Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Alawi, seated side by side due to alphabetized assigned seats at the United Nations, shook hands and chatted with each other. The Hezbollah terror organization was outraged by the incident, accusing the new Iraqi leader of disgracing Iraq and offending all Arabs and Muslims.'[It] is a sign of one of the most dangerous goals of the American war on Iraq, yanking Iraq from its place in the Arab and Muslim worlds and sticking it in the U.S.-Zionist political cosmos,' said the Hezbollah statement, Reuters reported.

"'This unacceptable handshake is at once a true insult to the Iraqi people, their history, culture and Islamic and national commitment; and flagrant scorn for the suffering of Palestinian people [sic] and the sentiments of Arabs and Muslims.'Asked about Iraq before the General Assembly meeting, Shalom told reporters, 'We would like not to be the only democracy in the Middle East. We would love for Iraq to join us, and after that the rest of the countries in the Middle East. It would bring more stability to the region and more stability to the entire world.' Alawi said this past July that Iraq would make no moves to normalize relations with Israel before the other Arab nations do so as part of a comprehensive Middle East peace treaty."

Who would have thought handshakes could so destabilize the global order?

Most underreported UN story: Brazil, India, Japan and Germany have formed a small clique called the Gang of 4 to pressure the UN to grant them permanent seats on the Security Council. They used to be called the Coffee Club, because they served uncommonly good coffee at their meetings. True story.