Beijing: Hours before the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is to take up a resolution on listing Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, China on Wednesday dropped a hint that it may once again block the move.
Notably, the deadline to raise objections to the proposal to designate Azhar as a global terrorist will expire at 12:30 am IST.
“I could reiterate that China will continue to adopt a responsible attitude and participate in the deliberations in the UNSC 1267 Committee,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters in Beijing.
Notably, China is a veto-wielding member of the UNSC. Beijing has blocked the move by India as well as other member nations thrice in the past to designate Azhar. China has been underlining that the solution should be acceptable to all.
When queried if the issue has been listed for deliberation on March 13 and China is in discussion over the issue with all the parties concerned, Lu said, “First I want to clarify that I don’t recall saying anything about the deadline about the UNSC committee and other UN subsidiary bodies”.
Talking about the issue of listing Azhar, he said, “I want to say that China always adopts a responsible attitude, engage in consultations with various parties and properly deal with this issue.”
“The discussions, I want to say must follow the rules and procedures of the relevant bodies and only the solution that is acceptable to all sides is conducive for resolving the issue,” he added.
On Saturday, India had mentioned that all UNSC members had information about the JeM training camps and the presence of 50-year-old Masood Azhar in Pakistan, and made an appeal to them to designate him as a global terrorist.
The JeM had claimed responsibility for the suicide attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on February 14 in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.
