China again blocks UNSC’s terror tag on JeM chief Azhar

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China again blocks UNSC’s terror tag on JeM chief Azhar

Thursday, 14 March 2019 | PTI | United Nations

China again blocks UNSC’s terror tag on JeM chief Azhar

In yet another setback to India’s bid to designate Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed’s chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, China on Wednesday put a technical hold on a proposal in the UN Security Council to ban him following the Pulwama terror attack.

The proposal to designate Azhar under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council was moved by France, the UK and the US on February 27, days after a suicide bomber of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 44 CRPF soldiers in Pulwama, leading to a flare-up in tensions between India and Pakistan.

The Sanctions Committee members had 10 working days to raise any objections to the proposal. The no-objection period deadline was scheduled to end at 3 PM local time (New York) Wednesday, (12:30 AM IST Thursday).

The proposal was the fourth such bid at the UN in the last 10 years to list Azhar as a global terrorist. The Committee makes its decisions by consensus of its members.

All eyes were on China, which has in the past blocked India’s bids to get Azhar listed as a UN-designated global terrorist thrice.

Earlier, the US said Masood meets the criteria to brand him as a “global terrorist” by the UN and China’s opposition to the move to “update” the designation list goes against the interests of the US and China in achieving regional stability and peace.

Several previous attempts by these three countries inside the UN Security Council were blocked by China, the all-weather ally of Pakistan.

China, which is one of the five veto-powered members of the Security Council, so far has been asserting that there is not enough evidence against Masood to designate him as a global terrorist.

Amid a mounting global outrage post Pulwama, the US, Britain and France hoped the Beijing would act wisely and would not oppose their move to designate Azhar as a global terrorist.

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