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A welcome resolution

Nov 22,2015 - Last updated at Nov 22,2015

The just-adopted UN Security Council resolution on combating terrorism in Syria and Iraq came at the initiative of France, which is still reeling from last week’s multiple terrorist attacks by Daesh in its capital, Paris.

The unanimously adopted resolution defined terrorism as “a threat to international peace and security” and called on the international community to redouble and coordinate efforts to curb it in Syria and Iraq by “all necessary means”.

As the French ambassador to the UN said, the resolution aims to “galvanise the international community as a whole to vanquish our shared enemy”.

It thus provides a legal and political framework to the fight against terrorism and calls for action to stem the flow of foreign terrorists into Syria and Iraq, and stop the funding of terrorists at the source.

The resolution seems to give nations carte blanche when it comes to the “means” to defeat terrorism in Syria and Iraq by not qualifying what these means are.

Under international humanitarian law, all methods and means of warfare must be “legitimate”, must be in accordance with international norms.

It can be presumed that that was the intention of the Security Council when it adopted the resolution, but to make the draft perfectly sound, the qualifying language should have been added.

Outstanding about the Friday resolution was the fact that it got the support of all members, including Russia.

It will be recalled that Moscow had thoughts of its own on the issue, and had proposed a different draft resolution for a similar purpose nearly two months ago, but in it, it had added language calling on the international community to cooperate with Damascus in its actions against terrorism.

There was no support for the Russian initiative at the time, for obvious reasons.

Now the Friday resolution gives enough legitimacy to the international community’s actions against Daesh in Syria and Iraq.

That is good and welcome news.

However, the resolution should not have stopped at these two countries; it should have enabled strikes against terrorists anywhere they are, and they seem to move quite freely about the region and beyond.

Still, it is a good start and, hopefully, a major step forward in the fight against Daesh.

 

It is also hoped that the resolution will be a stepping stone for further action against terrorism everywhere in the world.

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