UN Sanctions Bolster Global Efforts against Islamists

CHICAGO, – Efforts against Islamic State (IS) militants stepped up a notch on Friday with political gains in Baghdad, more foreign military support for Kurds and new UN Security Council sanctions against six men for recruiting or funding foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria.

The 15-member UN council unanimously adopted a resolution against al Qaeda's Syrian wing, Nusra Front, and the Islamic State militants who have declared a caliphate across Iraq and Syria and recently turned their blitzkrieg holy war on religious minorities in Kurdish zones.

Britain’s UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said sanctions hit six Islamist leaders and foreign financial backers. The document “tackles the funding and financing of these terrorist groups” by “choking off recruitment and in particular the supply of foreign fighters”, he said.

The document uses fiery diplomatic language and “deplores and condemns” IS and its “violent extremist ideology, and its continued gross, systematic and widespread abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law”.

It lists six people for international travel bans, asset freezes and arms embargos, including IS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani. Other additions are Abdelrahman Mouhamad Zafir al Dabidi al Jahani, Hajjaj Bin Fahd Al Ajmi, Said Arif, Abdul Mohsen Abdallah Ibrahim al Charekh and Hamid Hamad Hamid al-Ali.

Dr Najib Ghadbian, the Syrian Coalition’s UN envoy, praised a “useful step to tackling the threat” from IS, a Sunni Muslim force – also known as ISIS and ISIL – which is strengthened by foreign fighters and US weapons that were seized during battlefield victories against Iraqi forces.

“The Syrian Coalition calls for targeted airstrikes in Syria. We are seeing their impact in Iraq.  But they will not succeed in defeating the threat if ISIS is allowed to grow, train and regroup in Syria,” Ghadbian said. “Moderate forces need the means to hold ground, protect the civilian population, govern and provide services.  Moderates are the credible alternative to extremist rule.”

UN efforts to staunch the Islamic State’s money flows add to the military pressure against IS. US warplanes continue bombarding its forces while an emergency European Union meeting in Brussels opened the door for more members of the 28-group to arm embattled Kurdish forces.

Meanwhile in Baghdad, the new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi sought to form a government that was capable of orchestrating the recapture of IS-held territory, following the decision of his divisive predecessor Nouri Maliki to accept a changeover.