US says will use all resources to blacklist Masood Azhar

WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday stated it will “utilise all available resources” to ensure Jaish-e-Mohammad founder Masood Azhar, was held accountable countering Chinese charges that it has circumvented UN security council’s sanctions committee to blacklist the Pakistan-based Azhar.

“While we strongly prefer that UNSC designations take place through the committee process, the United States and its allies and partners, including those on the UN Security Council, will utilise all available avenues to ensure that the founder and leader of the UN-designated terrorist organisation JeM is held accountable by the international community,” a US state department spokesperson said in a statement, international media reported.

The spokesperson also confirmed “that we circulated a draft UNSC resolution with UK and French support”.

The state department was responding to China criticising the United States, France and the United Kingdom for moving a draft resolution at the UNSC as “not a constructive move” and that it “set a bad example”.

Beijing has said the process should have stayed in the 1267 sanctions committee where progress had been made and that the United States was aware of it and yet it “insists on pushing” the UNSC draft resolution.