"It's going to take some time before the Security Council is in a position to approve outside intervention in Mali," a council diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "It's not that we're opposed, it's just that there are many questions about how it would be done that need to be answered first."
Mali, once regarded as a good example of African democracy, collapsed into chaos after soldiers toppled the president in March, leaving a power vacuum that enabled Tuareg rebels from the north to take control of nearly two-thirds of the country.
The uprising also involved both local and foreign Islamist militants, and Western diplomats talk of the risk of the country turning into a "West African Afghanistan."
ECOWAS, the regional grouping that includes Mali, and the African Union want intervention. But because the United Nations Security Council won't grant a scrap of paper they will accept secession, the defeat of a democratic government, and the influx of jihadis to their region?
Who knew international consensus was a suicide pact?
