3 October, 2007: United Nations -- The United Nations’ Special Adviser on Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, will brief the organization on the details of his meetings with top military leaders later this week.

Gambari has so far revealed little of his four-day trip to the troubled south Asian state. He is known to have met Senior General Than Shwe in the remote northern capital of Naypyitaw, as well as with other members of the junta’s leadership on Tuesday. Following those talks, he had a second meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon. He then left for New York via Singapore.

The Nigerian diplomat’s highly anticipated briefing, believed to be scheduled for Friday, may move the UN towards collective action on Myanmar. But previous attempts to pass a resolution against the ruling military elite have been blocked by China and Russia, a scenario that is likely to be repeated.

Western governments have signaled their willingness to impose new sanctions on Myanmar after the world witnessed the beating of monks and other peaceful demonstrators in September.

But without comprehensive support from China, India, Thailand, and Indonesia, all of who have energy interests in Myanmar’s vast oil and gas reserves, sanctions are likely to be ineffective.

However, China in its quest for international legitimacy is emerging as a useful and reliable regional broker for the United Nations. Gambari’s very entry to Myanmar was said to be the result of Chinese pressure on their southern neighbor.

And on the Korean peninsula, Chinese diplomatic work between the North and South Korea has been crucial to the success of six-nation talks this week in which North Korea agreed to disable its main nuclear reactor and to release details of its secretive nuclear program
by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, negotiations in the Middle East remain typically thorny. In her address to the UN’s General Assembly, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, criticized the organization for allowing Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to undermine its “moral authority.”

In turn, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem lashed at Israel for its occupation of the Golan Heights and mistreatment of Palestinians. Syria and Israel are officially at war. Israel has held the Golan Heights since 1967. In 2000, peace talks between the rivals collapsed.

But Livni also told the General Assembly that Israel is prepared to trade land for peace, and recent remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert suggest that the Jewish state is indeed ready for substantial peace-talks with its antagonistic northern neighbor, despite having bombed a Syrian military installation in early September.

According the U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC Syria will be invited to a U.S.-sponsored conference on the Middle East scheduled for late November. However, the invitation has not yet been issued and Syria has already insisted that if the Golan Heights is not in the agenda, their delegates will not attend.