Discussions to reach a compromise that would enable China to allow the UN Security Council to list and sanction Masood Azhar in exchange for some changes in the language of the designation as proposed, are believed to be underway. It is also expected the outcome will not take long and in fact is expected within days.
However if the discussions fail, the three UN Security Council (UNSC) members including, the United States, the United Kingdom and France who had initially proposed to designate Azhar, will reportedly escalate the issue and push for a UNSC resolution. Such a resolution will lead to debate and voting upon openly in contrast to the confidential decision-making process of the council sanction committee that deals with listing requests. Also, the three proposers appear willing to accept the changes in the interest of achieving the higher goal of designating the Pakistan based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed Chief Masood Azhar.
Also Read: China justifies its move to block Masood Azhar blacklisting
When discussions started for the issue of a statement by the UNSC condemning the February 14 Pulwama terror attack, it was highly expected that China would block anything meaningful from coming out. However, gradually the negotiators, to their surprise realised that China was willing to get along and actually wanted to get to a 'yes'. The only condition it put forward was to come up with the right language. However, the negotiators did not get the language right.
It was for the first time that the UNSC had condemned a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir. Also, the statement referred to the state by its official name ‘Jammu and Kashmir’ and not ‘Indian-administered Kashmir’ as it had been called by the world body before. Also, it was for the first time that the UNSC had condemned a terrorist attack on Indian security forces in that state.
As of now, no clarity is there whether these on-going discussions are based on the proposal put on hold by China or a new proposal would be brought before the UNSC sanctions committee based on the compromise under discussion.
While these signs were noted and gave hope to negotiators about an eventual designation, China appears to have been in no hurry to get there. On Wednesday, it put a technical hold on the proposal, which can last six months, and then for another three months. Beijing has said it needs time.