The Politics of UN Terror Proscriptions

The global body has not usually been rational or logical or even legal, but mainly political in dealing with terrorism

- TS Tirumurti

An Indian delegation presented evidence against The Resistance Front (TRF) to UN counter-terrorism officials in New York, for designating TRF as a terror group under the UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1267 sanctions list. TRF, which claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam terror attack before retracting, is a proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)—a Pakistan-based UN-designated terror group under the 1267 sanctions list.

UNSCR 1267, adopted in 1999 by the UN Security Council (UNSC), began the sanctions regime against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and blacklisted terrorists and terror groups in Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden and his associates. In 2011, a separate Taliban Sanctions Committee was constituted by UNSC to deal exclusively with the Taliban, which India chaired during our recent stint at the UNSC (between 2021 and 2022).

Despite being proscribed by UNSC, the world still seeks to normalize relations with the Taliban-led government—even as acting Prime Minister (PM) Hasan Akhund, acting first deputy PM Abdul Ghani Baradar and acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi are still on the Taliban sanctions list. Even as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham—an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria—remains on the 1267 Sanctions list, US President Donald Trump warmly shook hands with its former leader, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, now the interim President of Syria. And, in Pakistan, army generals attended funerals of terrorists affiliated with UN-sanctioned groups killed during Operation Sindoor. Welcome to the real world of UN’s terror proscriptions!