Tharoor differs with Cong again, now on Pak role in key UNSC panels

Former UN Under-Secretary-General and sitting Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday differed with his own party over the implications of Pakistan’s appointment as the lead of two anti-terrorism panels in the UN Security Council.

“These committees work on consensus and it is not really possible for a chairman to single-handedly get something through that others resist or push a particular line that other countries are not in favour of. There are half a dozen counter-terrorism committees of the UNSC and Council members take turns presiding over such bodies....,” Tharoor said at an interactive session at the Indian Embassy in Washington.

The four term Lok Sabha MP from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram noted that India was not exactly friendless on the Security Council.

“We are fairly confident that this (Pakistan on key panels) is going to be a designation without much practical consequence. India’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York will monitor this carefully,” Tharoor said, explaining that these roles were routine.

US lawmaker tells Pak delegation to eliminate ‘vile’ JeM

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Washington: A senior American lawmaker has told a visiting Pakistani delegation, led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, that the country should do “all it can” to eliminate the “vile” terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed as well as ensure protection of religious minorities. The Pakistani delegation met Congressman Brad Sherman here on Thursday, timing their visit to the US capital around the same time as a multi-party delegation of Indian parliamentarians led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor is in Washington DC. PTI

The former UN diplomat said as long as Pakistan was on the Security Council (Pakistan is a non-permanent member of the UNSC for 2025-26), this kind of privilege might come their way.

Tharoor’s comments on the issue stood in stark contrast to the position taken by his party, the Congress.

Only yesterday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had said the naming of Pakistan as the vice-chair of the 15-member United Nations Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee and chair of the Taliban Sanctions Committee for 2025 was “most unfortunate, ill-informed and unacceptable”.

“The international community must see merit in India’s case that Pakistan should be included back in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list for monitoring of its terror financing,” Kharge had said asking the government to take appropriate and resolute diplomatic actions to de-hyphenate India and Pakistan on the global stage.

This is the second time in a few days that Tharoor and the Congress have found each other at odds over sensitive issues concerning Indian counter-terrorism policy and global standing.

Earlier, the Congress had officially ticked off Tharoor for claiming that Operation Sindoor was the first time that Indian military crossed the LoC and the international border for a counter-terrorism strike.

The Congress claimed surgical strikes had happened previously under the Congress-led UPA regime also, but were not publicised then.

On Thursday, Tharoor, without naming Congress colleagues, had said those who believed that working in national interest was anti-party needed to introspect and ask questions of themselves rather than the others.

The UNSC 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee works on asset freeze, travel restrictions and arms embargoes on terrorist groups and individuals associated with the Taliban.

The updated UNSC list says Denmark will chair the 1267 ISIL (Daesh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee in 2025 and Russia and Sierra Leone will be vice-chairs. Algeria will chair the 1373 counter-terrorism committee, while France, Pakistan and Russia will serve as its vice-chairs.