India strongly criticised an “unresponsive” Security Council on Wednesday for being indecisive on sanctioning leaders of organisations that it had designated as terrorist entities after China extended its “technical hold” on India’s bid for a U.N. ban on JeM chief Masood Azhar.
India’s Permanent Representative to the U.N., Syed Akbaruddin, told the General Assembly that the 15-nation Security Council, the “principal organ” tasked with the maintenance of peace and security, had in a variety of ways become “unresponsive to the needs of our time and ineffective to meeting the challenges it is confronted with”.
Without naming China, Mr. Akbaruddin referred to its technical hold on India’s bid against Azhar, saying the council was a body that “ponders for six months whether to sanction leaders of organisations it has itself designated as terrorist entities”. “Then, unable to decide, it gives itself three more months to further consider this issue. One has to expectantly wait for nine months before the process is completed to know if council members have decided on a single issue,” he said in the General Assembly debate on the Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organisation here. The Chinese hold lapsed on Monday, and had it not raised an objection, the resolution designating Azhar a terrorist would have been passed automatically.
