New York: Calling out Pakistan for its support for terrorism and China for providing terrorists cover against sanctions, India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has unveiled an eight-point plan against the global scourge.
In a speech to a UNSC session — convened to mark two decades since the 1373 anti-terror resolution was passed after the 9/11 attacks in the US — Jaishankar called for “zero tolerance to terrorism”.
The international community must collectively expose and hold accountable those countries that are “clearly guilty of aiding and supporting terrorism, and willfully provide financial assistance and safe havens” for terrorists, he said speaking through a videolink.
Jaishankar did not name Pakistan or China, but he made the references to the countries contextually clear.
“We, in India, have seen the crime syndicate responsible for the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts not just given state protection but enjoying 5-star hospitality,” he said in one such reference that pointed to Pakistan hosting Dawood Ibrahim, the crime boss behind the attack that killed 257 people.
In his eight-point plan, he criticized the double standards advocated by Pakistan and some others and said: “Terrorists are terrorists; there are no good and bad ones. Those who propagate this distinction have an agenda. And those who cover up for them are just as culpable.”
As for China, he referred to “the practice of placing blocks and holds on listing requests without any rhyme or reasons which, he said, “must end because this only erodes our collective credibility.”
Beijing blocked for a decade the listing of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as an international terrorist by a Council sanctions committee. He was behind several terrorist attacks on India.
Jaishankar suggested that the UN increase cooperation with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which should continue to identify and fix weaknesses in anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing mechanisms, he said.
