The United States, Britain and France had initially asked the Security Council’s Islamic State and al Qaeda sanctions committee to subject JeM founder Masood Azhar to an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze in February. China had previously prevented the sanctions committee from imposing sanctions on Azhar in 2016 and 2017. JeM is an anti-India group that forged ties with al Qaeda and was blacklisted by the UN Security Council in 2001. In late March, the United States, Britain and France stepped up their push to blacklist Azhar by proposing a resolution, which would have needed nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, Britain or France to pass. After further negotiations, they submitted a new request to the committee on Sunday to sanction Azhar, which was agreed on Wednesday.

Source: bd News24 May 01, 2019 13:41 UTC