Let UN ban Masood Azhar only if India carries out military de-escalation: Pakistan tells China

Pakistan on Thursday told its ‘all-weather friend’ China to lift the technical hold on the United Nations listing of Masood Azhar - chief of the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed - as a global terrorist only if India agrees to carry out a military de-escalation on the Line of Control (LoC), reports Hindustan Times. The other condition set by it is that Delhi should resume bilateral dialogue with Islamabad on all outstanding issues including Kashmir.

The development comes as China has indicated that it won't support the unilateral draft resolution circulated by the US to the UN Security Council (UNSC) to declare Jaish as an international terrorist.

Slamming Washington for its move, Beijing also accused it of ‘bypassing’ the UN 1267 Committee and eroding its authority.

The development comes two weeks after China put a hold on a proposal to list Azhar under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Council, the US on Wednesday circulated the draft resolution to the powerful 15-nation Council to blacklist the leader of the Pakistan-based terror group and subject him to a travel ban, an assets freeze and an arms embargo.

UN sources told PTI that this is the "first time" the US, the UK and France have moved a draft resolution directly in the Security Council to designate Azhar. The previous have been listing proposals in the Sanctions Committee of the Council to designate Azhar.

Unlike a listing proposal, which is generally under a 10- day no objection period, the draft resolution is not under any no-objection provision. Sources said that the draft resolution will be discussed informally and then it goes to the Council.

However, it's not yet decided by when a vote would be held on the draft resolution, during when it could again face a veto by China, which has in the past blocked bids to blacklist Azhar.

Sources said the draft resolution would condemn "in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly suicide bombing" on February 14 in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district that killed 40 CRPF personnel.

An annex to the draft resolution says Azhar is associated with the Islamic State terror group, Al-Qaida for "participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating" or "supplying, selling or transferring arms and related material" or supporting acts of Jaish-e-Mohammed.

It says that Azhar founded Jaish after his release from prison in India in 1999 in exchange for 155 hostages held on an Indian Airlines flight that had been hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

France, the UK and the US on February 27 moved a proposal to designate Azhar under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee. It was under the no-objection period and Committee members had a period of 10 working days to raise any objections to the proposal.

More than a dozen member states had co-sponsored the proposal. About an hour before the no-objection deadline was to expire on March 13 at 3 PM, China blocked the proposal by putting a hold on it.

India expressed disappointment by the outcome, saying in a statement "this has prevented action by the international community to designate the leader of Jaish, a proscribed and active terrorist organisation which has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir on 14 February 2019".