UN Secretary-GeneralAntonio Guterres has expressed hope that all member states will abide by thedecision of the sanctions committee of the world body which imposed an armsembargo, asset freeze and travel ban on Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar.
The UN sanctionscommittee on the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda on Wednesday announced thedesignation of Azhar, leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), over its ties toAl-Qaeda.
The JeM has claimedresponsibility for the Pulwama suicide attack that killed 40 CRPF soldiers andled to a spike in military tensions between India and Pakistan.
In response to a questionon Guterres’ reaction, his spokesman said: “This is the work of awell-established mechanism through the Sanctions Committee of the SecurityCouncil. It is a big part of the United Nations work in the fight againstterrorism”.
“It’s always goodwhen all member states of the security council agree on something. We would ofcourse hope that all member states abide by those decisions,” he said.
The United Nationsdesignated Azhar as a “global terrorist” after China lifted its holdon a proposal to blacklist him.
The US, France along withthe UK had moved the proposal to designate Azhar as a “globalterrorist” in the UN Security Council’s 1267 Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committeein February.A Security Council member said that Germany, Belgium and Poland alsoco-sponsored the proposal, adding that there has been new unity and these threedelegations also supported the proposal to list Azhar.