Terror acts by Lashkar in Mumbai or Hamas in Kibbutz Be'eri 'unlawful, unjustifiable': US Secretary of State Blinken

PTI

United Nations, October 24

Drawing a parallel between terrorist attacks by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba in Mumbai and by Hamas in Israel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said all acts of terrorism are “unlawful and unjustifiable” and the Security Council must denounce member states that arm, fund and train terrorist groups.

Blinken made the remarks while addressing the Security Council ministerial meeting on the situation in the Middle East following the October 7 attack on Israel by Gaza-based Hamas militants.

“We must affirm the right of any nation to defend itself and to prevent such horror from repeating itself. No member of this Council, no nation in this entire body could or would tolerate the slaughter of its people,” Blinken told the UN Security Council here.

In his remarks, Blinken drew a parallel between the terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel and the Pakistan-based terror organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba in Mumbai.

“As this Council and the UN General Assembly have repeatedly affirmed, all acts of terrorism are unlawful and unjustifiable. They’re unlawful and unjustifiable, whether they target people in Nairobi or Bali… Istanbul or Mumbai, in New York or Kibbutz Be’eri,” he said.

“They are unlawful and unjustifiable whether they’re carried out by ISIS, by Boko Haram, by Al Shabaab, by Lashkar-e-Toiba or by Hamas. They are unlawful and unjustifiable whether victims are targeted for their faith, their ethnicity, their nationality or any other reason,” Blinken said.

He stressed that the Security Council has a responsibility to denounce member states that arm, fund and train Hamas or “any other terrorist group that carries out such horrific acts”. Blinken’s remarks appeared to refer to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks carried out by Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba.

A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people in India’s financial hub.

Blinken added that the international community must not forget that among the more than 1400 people that Hamas killed on October 7 when it attacked Israel, were citizens from more than 30 UN member states, including many of the members around the horseshoe UNSC table. The victims included at least 33 American citizens.

“Every one of us has a stake, every one of us has a responsibility in defeating terrorism,” Blinken said.

Addressing the Council, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the situation in the Middle East is growing more dire by the hour.

“The war in Gaza is raging and risks spiralling throughout the region. Divisions are splintering societies. Tensions threaten to boil over,” he said.

The UN chief, however, added that it is “important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.

“They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing,” he said.

“But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” Guterres said.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza has reported over 5,000 Palestinians have been killed so far, including over 2,000 children and 1,100 women as well as journalists, medical workers and first responders, with more than 15,000 injured.

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