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US President Barack Obama
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UN Security Council unifies behind anti-IS measures

Special UN Security Council meeting chaired by Obama sees international support rise for anti-Islamic State airstrikes in Syria; EU warns against possible attacks by al-Qaeda in bid to regain spotlight.

The UN Security Council unified behind the international attempt to fight the Islamic State group and demanded on Wednesday that all states make it a serious criminal offense for their citizens to travel abroad to fight with militant groups, or to recruit and fund others to do so.

 

 

At a meeting chaired by US President Barack Obama, the 15-member council unanimously adopted a US-drafted resolution that compels countries to "prevent and suppress" the recruitment and travel of militant fighters to foreign conflicts. 

 

Video: Reuters    (רויטרס)

Video: Reuters

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The resolution will be penned by over 100 nations and de facto removed legal hurdles for US airstrikes in Syria, which unlike Iraq, did not invite the US' intervention.

 

“The United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death,” Obama told the General Assembly of the United Nations. “Today I ask the world to join in this effort.”

 

“We will use our military might in a campaign of airstrikes to roll back ISIL,” he declared, using an alternative acronym for the group.

 

UN Security Council  (Photo: AFP)
UN Security Council (Photo: AFP)

 

After his address, Obama chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council which unanimously approved a binding resolution on stemming the flow of foreign jihadists to Iraq and Syria.


The resolution requires all countries to adopt laws that would make it a serious crime for their nationals to join jihadist groups such as ISIS and the Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria.

 

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Obama described the resolution as “historic” at the special session of the Council, only the sixth time in UN history that the council was convening at the level of heads of state.

 

US President Barack Obama (Photo: AFP)
US President Barack Obama (Photo: AFP)

 

The UN action reflects mounting international concern over rising numbers of foreign fighters joining the Islamic State militant group and the threat they pose when returning home. Some 12,000 fighters from more than 70 nations have joined extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, experts say.

 

British Prime Minister David Cameron told the Security Council that the beheadings of two American journalists and a British aid worker by a fighter with an apparent British accent "underlines the sinister, direct nature of this threat."

 

The council resolution is under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which makes it legally binding for the 193 UN member states and gives the Security Council authority to enforce decisions with economic sanctions or force.

 

It targets fighters traveling to conflicts anywhere in the world, but does not mandate military force.

 

Obama is building a global coalition against Islamic State, which has captured swaths of Syria and Iraq and urged its followers to attack citizens of various countries. The United States has led air strikes against the group in Iraq and Syria.

 

"The words spoken here today must be matched and translated into action," Obama told the Security Council after the adoption of the resolution. "For if there was ever a challenge in our interconnected world that cannot be met by one nation alone, it is this - terrorists crossing borders and threatening to unleash unspeakable violence."

 

Obama chaired the Security Council because the United States is president of the body for September.

 

The UN resolution expresses concern that "foreign terrorist fighters increase the intensity, duration and intractability of conflicts, and also may pose a serious threat to their states of origin, the states they transit and the states to which they travel."

 

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the council that the passports of more than 60 Australians had been suspended to stop them from joining extremist groups in the Middle East. Both Abbott and Cameron outlined their efforts to strengthen laws.

 

Terror target: Israel

The European Union's counterterrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove said al-Qaeda may try to show its relevance by carrying out attacks in Europe, the United States or Israel, the European Union's counterterrorism coordinator said on Wednesday.

 

De Kerchove warned of the risk of competition between Islamic State and al-Qaeda, which has renounced its offshoot as too brutal.

 

"It is possible that Al-Qaida may want to mount attacks to show that the organization is still relevant, they are still in the game," De Kerchove told a European Parliament committee.

 

He said some militants had moved from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Syria, where they formed part of the al-Qaeda-linked Khorasan Group.

 

He added that it appeared they planned to recruit Europeans who had travelled to Syria to fight and persuade them to use their passports to return and mount attacks in Europe, Israel and the United States.

 

While Islamic State was the main target of a US-led air assault in Syria this week, American officials said they also targeted the Khorasan Group, with the aim of disrupting a plot against US or European targets that the Pentagon said was "nearing the execution phase."

 

De Kerchove estimated that more than 3,000 Europeans were in Syria, had been there or planned to go there to fight, and that there was a real risk some of them could return and bring violence back to Europe.

 

"We have seen that in Brussels with the killing of four persons at the Jewish Museum. It raises their level of tolerance of violence to such a level that there is a risk when they come back that killing is something normal," he said.

 

Reuters and AFP contributed to this report

 


פרסום ראשון: 09.25.14, 09:12
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