“China cannot thwart India…”: India’s former Permanent Representative to UN

Syed Akbaruddin, India’s former UN representative, said on Monday that the designation of Abdul Rehman Makki as a global terrorist by the UN sanctions committee demonstrates a growing global understanding that China cannot thwart India’s pursuit of justice and that China’s stranglehold on India’s pursuit of justice is now in vain.

“The news depicts a growing understanding globally that China cannot thwart India. China’s stranglehold over India’s pursuit of justice against those who attacked our people is now in vain,” Akbaruddin said on UN listing Pakistan’s Abdul Rehman Makki as a global terrorist. “Countering terrorism is one of Indian foreign policy’s most important goals,” he said.

Akbaruddin further said that India’s quest for justice for its people against Pakistan-based terrorists would continue. “This is a good success of Indian diplomacy,” the former representative at the UN said.

“It took us more than a decade to designate Masood Azhar and now it has taken us about seven months plus to designate Abdul Rehman Makki. You can see that India is successful in mounting pressure on those who oppose the designation of terrorism,” he added.

Former Indian diplomat Vidya Bhushan Soni said that such terrorists are not only against India but against humanity and against all the innocent people of this world.

“Such terrorists are not only against India but against humanity and against all the innocent people of this world. So it is good that China has supported us in this. They have secured their own future through this, so that they can also ask for help if faced with such terrorists.”

The UN Security Council has classified Abdul Rehman Makki, the brother-in-law of 26/11 mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) head Hafiz Saeed, as a global terrorist under its ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee.

India’s persistence has mostly been responsible for increasing international pressure to name LeT deputy head Makki as a global terrorist.

This naming is viewed as a huge victory for New Delhi after China opposed a joint effort by India and the US to have the UN Security Council identify Makki as a global terrorist in June 2022.

Beijing put a last-minute “technical hold” on the joint proposal to put Makki on the UNSC’s 1267 list of terrorists linked to al Qaeda and ISIL. The move by Beijing was condemned by India as “extremely unfortunate.”
“On 16 January 2023, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) concerning ISIL (Da’esh), Al-Qaida, and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities approved the addition of the entry specified below to its ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2610 (2021) and adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations,” the UN said in a statement on Monday.

Resolution 1267 provides for sanctions against individuals and entities that support or finance the acts or activities of ISIL, Al-Qaida, associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities.

Makki is the deputy leader of LeT, an organisation that was later renamed the Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD), as a terrorist. Just like LeT, the JuD is also a UN-designated terror group.