France is to push for what is in effect a declaration of war against Isis at theUnited Nations security council with a resolution calling on members to “take all necessary measures” to defeat the terror group in the wake of the Paris attacks.
EU ministers are to hold talks on Friday about emergency measures to tighten border checks after the ringleader of the attacks was killed in an apartment on the French capital’s fringe.
French officials at the UN have circulated a draft declaration calling on countries to “redouble and co-ordinate their efforts” against Isis. It is understood the resolution has been worded to encourage unity so it can be swiftly pushed forward.
Britain, which holds the council presidency, said it would enable a vote to go ahead as soon asFrance is ready.
The French ambassador, Francois Delattre, said on Thursday: “The exceptional and unprecedented threat posed by this group to the entire international community requires a strong, united and unambiguous response from the security council.
“This is the goal of our draft resolution, which calls on all member states to take all necessary measures to fight Daesh [Isis].”
French officials were said to be hopeful of success because Isis has attacked and killed nationals of Russia and China – which hold a security council veto, and regularly use it to block resolutions that suggest intervention across sovereign borders.
Despite a dispute over a separate draft Russian resolution on Syria, Moscow’s UN envoy, Vitaly Churkin, sounded a conciliatory note, indicating he did not have any objections to the French text and suggesting the Russian measures could be adopted at a later time.
Quoting French officials, the Independent reported that the draft called on all members “with the capacity to do so” to “take all necessary measures, in compliance with international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law, on the territory under the control of Isil [Isis] in Syria and Iraq, to redouble and co-ordinate their efforts to prevent and suppress terrorist acts committed specifically by Isil … and to eradicate the safe haven they have established in Iraq and Syria”.
The 15-member council will be asked to endorse UN member states taking action to “prevent and suppress terrorist acts” committed by Isis and other extremist groups.
The French draft resolution does not provide any legal basis for military action and does not invoke chapter seven of the UN charter authorising use of force.
But French diplomats said it would provide important international political support to the anti-Isis campaign that has been ramped up since the attacks in Paris on Friday that left 129 dead.
Delattre said he was seeking rapid approval of the draft resolution that was “put in blue” – a UN term designating that a final version is ready for a vote at the security council.
France’s bid came after Russia submitted a revised text of a separate draft resolution that calls for fighting Isis with Syria’s consent. That draft has been rejected by the United States, Britain and France, which are refusing to co-operate with President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
British ambassador Matthew Rycroft, whose country chairs the council this month, said the Russian measure “seeks to legitimise the authority of Assad” and added that it did “not have much prospect”. Russia and the west have been unable to overcome differences over Assad’s future, with the United States and its European and Gulf allies pressing for a clear timetable for the Syrian leader to exit from power.
After the separate French resolution was circulated, Churkin, the Russian UN envoy, recalled that after the 11 September 2001 attacks there was a first resolution adopted quickly, followed by a broader one, and said “it may well be that we will go down that road again” – referring to the possibility that Russia’s wording on Syria might be somehow accommodated later.
The French draft text describes Isis as a “global and unprecedented threat to international peace and security” and says sanctions would soon be imposed against group leaders and supporters.
The text “unequivocally condemns in the strongest terms the horrifying terrorist attacks” by the Islamic State group in Paris and Beirut, and also mentions violence in Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt during 2015.
The French president, Francois Hollande, is due to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and US leader Barack Obama next week for talks aimed at stepping up the campaign against the extremists, who have overrun large areas of Syria and Iraq in a brutal offensive.
French officials meanwhile have confirmed the Syria-based Belgian jihadi suspected of planning the Paris attacks died in a ferocious firefight at a crumbling terrorist hideout north of Paris on Wednesday. The case of Abdelhamid Abaaoud raised serious questions about how one of Europe’s most wanted men could travel freely around the continent, passing checks in countries including Belgium and Germany without alarms being triggered, has put European leaders under intense pressure to get a grip on Europe’s external and internal borders.
The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said Abaaoud had played a “decisive role” in the Paris attacks and was suspected of involvement in four of the six terror plots that French intelligence services had foiled so far in 2015.
But, Cazeneuve pointed out, he was the subject of both a European and an international arrest warrant – and no EU intelligence service had alerted Francethat he was on European soil.
The mutilated body of the 28-year-old, linked with half a dozen terrorist plots across Europe, was found in the rubble of the badly damaged apartment in St-Denis and identified from skin samples.
As the head of Europol, the EU police agency, revealed much higher figures for suspected and potential “foreign fighters” on its watchlists, EU interior ministers, meeting on Friday at France’s request, are set to unveil a battery of mainly electronic measures aimed at combating terror and improving controls. They including tightening checks on all travellers at the external borders of the 26-nation Schengen zone as an emergency measure.
Many have been mooted before, particularly after the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris in January, but not implemented. “But because of Paris, it’s the best chance to push them through because that will vanish in a few weeks,” a senior EU diplomat admitted.
Europe now had “to move fast and firmly,” Cazeneuve said, calling on his fellow ministers to agree on a Europe-wide passenger information register, improved controls along Europe’s external borders, and better coordination against arms-trafficking.
“France has been calling for these measures for more than 18 months, and some progress has been made,” Cazeneuve said. “But it is not fast enough, and it does not go far enough … Everyone must understand Europe has to organise, recover, defend itself against the terrorist threat.”(Jon Henley in Paris, Ian Traynor in Brussels, Warren Murray and agencies)
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/20/paris-attacks-france-launches-un-push-for-unified-declaration-of-war-on-isis
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