With both the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and Paris-based Financial Action Task Force issuing strong statements on the February 14 Pulwama terror attack and calling on Pakistan to act against the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), diplomats in Delhi and New York say they have begun negotiations on a new proposal to place JeM chief Masood Azhar on the ban list operated by the UNSC’s 1267 committee, the fourth such request in four consecutive years.
The effort, being coordinated by France among its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the embassy in Delhi and the U.N. mission in New York, is likely to take some weeks, the diplomats said.
In March, by coincidence, France will also take over the presidency of the UNSC, which comprises 5 permanent and 10 non-permanent members.
“When the attack happened, we realised that we would need to tackle this [listing] in a two-step, by first formulating a statement from the UNSC and then try to ensure consensus on the proposal to [ban Masood Azhar],” a western diplomat told The Hindu. “While technical preparations are expected to take a few weeks, the next two-three days will be crucial,” he said.
The most important meeting in this regard will come on February 27, when Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj meets Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi.
Beijing's stance
Beijing has vetoed all the past three attempts to list Azhar: in 2016 and the subsequent two years. Ms. Swaraj is expected to meet Mr. Wang for the trilateral meeting of Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers along with Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov in Wuzhen, and then will meet both bilaterally.
“It will be critical to see what role Russia plays in this effort, not just on supporting India, but on actively convincing China to withdraw its objections to the listing,” the diplomat said.
China agreed to the UNSC press statement that named the JeM after considerable wrangling over the wording, particularly insisting on leaving out any direct reference to Pakistan in it and objecting to any “political statements,” diplomats aware of the negotiations in New York said.
At one point, talks nearly broke down with the U.S. and China at loggerheads, and the French delegation went in to forge an agreement on a carefully worded statement that would send a “strong signal” to Pakistan.
The extent of the disagreement was evident from the relatively much quicker response from the UNSC to a similar attack which killed 27 Iranian soldiers in Sistan, Baluchistan on February 13, a day before the Pulwama attack.
Despite the U.S.’s other issues with Iran, the UNSC was able to issue its statement on February 14, while the statement on Pulwama came a week later, on February 21.
Acknowledging the delay in a tweet, India’s ambassador to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, who worked behind the scenes on the final statement, wrote: “A statement with many firsts takes more time than expected. In complex diplomatic situations, however, it is better to be late than never.”
Foreign Secretary to meet Ambassadors
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale is coordinating the diplomatic pressure India hopes to build on Pakistan in the coming weeks by meeting focused groups of Ambassadors from different regions with specific lists of expectations from each.
In particular, officials said the European Union (EU) is being asked to add Pakistan to its own 'black list' and to conduct a serious review of the GSP+ (Generalised System of Preferences) status if it fails to crack down on the groups targeting India, particularly the JeM and the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
At present the EU had put only DPRK or North Korea on its black list. For the moment, however, the Azhar listing is top priority for the government, and the need to convince China to turn its vote against him high on the diplomatic agenda, officials said.
