At UNSC huddle, Pakistan faces tough questions

NEW DELHI: The United Nations Security Council’s closed-door meeting on rising India-Pakistan tensions expectedly failed to yield any substantive outcome for Pakistan. Indian govt sources said Pakistan’s efforts to internationalise the issue made little headway as UNSC advised Islamabad to resolve issues bilaterally with India and sought accountability for the Pahalgam attack, while expressing concern over Pakistan’s nuclear rhetoric and missile tests.In the 90-minute meeting, the member-states are learnt to have condemned the April 22 attack and posed “tough questions” about the likely involvement of UN-proscribed Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.No takers at UNSC meet for Pak’s false-flag narrative While views were expressed individually by some after the consultations, the Council didn’t collectively make any statement. The least Pakistan would have hoped for is an oral statement by the Council president.Former Indian permanent representative to UN Syed Akbaruddin said Pakistan’s quest to resurrect an agenda item which has not been deliberated upon formally since 1965 by Council expectedly didn’t take off. Pakistan is a non-permanent UNSC member currently.“The lack of a response by the Council to Pakistan’s briefing is a vindication of Indian stance,” said Akbaruddin, who was India’s ambassador to the UN when Pakistan last sought closed-door consultations through China in 2019. That was after India revoked J&K’s special status in Aug 2019.The 2019 meeting too had ended without any outcome or formal statement even though China had strongly pushed for it. Closed-door meetings comprise informal discussions that are held not in Council room but in an adjacent chamber with limited number of delegates. For Pakistan, as in 2019, the latest meeting too was more an exercise in managing public perception than advancing any meaningful discussions, even though the consultations were held under the India-Pakistan Question that relates to J&K and not under, as it was meant to be initially, the generic ‘Threats to International Peace and Security’ agenda item.In the meeting, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, members disapproved of false flag narrative initially propounded by Pakistan and asked about the likely involvement of LeT in the attack. There were questions about targeting of tourists based on their religious identity. “There was condemnation of the attack and recognition of the need for accountability. Some members specifically brought up the targeting of tourists on basis of their religious faith,” said a source, adding many members expressed concern that Pakistan’s missile tests and nuclear rhetoric were escalatory factors.Before the meeting, some Council members were reported to have backed the idea of an independent international investigation into the attack. According to the Security Council Report, China and Greece appeared to have already indicated – before the meeting – their support for such an investigation. Such a probe though will need the consent of both India and Pakistan.Pakistan issued a statement after the meet in which it said Council members expressed “deep concern” over the risk of escalation and urged restraint. It also claimed several members underscored that the J&K dispute remained the root cause of regional instability.