China has opposed a U.S.-led proposal in the UN Security Council to designate Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad’s founder Masood Azhar a global terrorist, more than a month after it vetoed an earlier proposal for the same.
The “technical hold” put by China on the proposal jointly moved by the U.S., the U.K. and France indicates its continued eagerness to shield Pakistan. Pakistan had recently said the JeM leader had been put under house arrest, even as it became clear that the outgoing Obama administration had renewed the proposal to designate Azhar terrorist, immediately after the Chinese veto in December. The new Donald Trump administration in the U.S. has also signalled it would be tough on questions of terrorist designations.
When the UNSC meets as al-Qaeda, Taliban & IS Sanctions Committees, it works on the principle of ‘unanimity and anonymity’ — a single member’s opposition amounts to a veto, and the deliberations and the voting will remain secret.
India had last year opposed this practice which it called the “hidden veto”. Last year, China put the proposal on hold, first for six months, and then extended it for three months before finally blocking it altogether. Once it is ‘blocked,’ a new proposal can be moved.
The JeM is already a UN-designated terrorist organisation and China has so far refused to explain how it distinguishes the leader from the organisation. The question of Azhar — who was among the terrorists released by India following the hijacking of IC-814 in 1999 — came to the foreground last year after India held him responsible for the Pathankot attack. “We have been informed of this development and the matter has been taken up with the Chinese government,” MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said in response to the latest move by China. The new proposal has removed the mention of Pakistan, which the Chinese had cited as reason for its objection to the earlier one. Diplomatic sources at the UN told The Hindu that China has been trying to persuade Pakistan to roll back its support for Azhar, but the JeM leader is far too influential in the Pakistani establishment to be abandoned.
India hopes that the Trump administration policy at the UN will signal continuity with the Obama administration on the issue. “Since President Trump has enhanced the Obama ‘War on Terror’ to the ‘Eradication of Terror’, the world can expect our result-driven Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in the mould of James Baker aka the ‘Velvet Hammer’, to communicate with China about the error of her ways,” said Ravi Batra, a New York-based lawyer, who is also Pro-Bono Humanitarian and Legal Affairs Advisor to the Ukraine Mission to UN.
Ukraine is currently a member of the UNSC. Mr. Batra believes the role of U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, will be beneficial for India. “In the UNSC, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley will be a near ‘Force of Nature’, with a scorecard, to achieve the best interests of the U.S. Luckily for India, U.S. interests overlay in large measure India’s interests — especially the determination to be terror-free,” he said.
