China blocks move to ban terrorist Masood Azhar at UN

China said on Saturday that it would extend the technical hold it placed in March to prevent the imposition of sanctions on Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar.

In a move that would deal a blow to India’s efforts to freeze the assets of Azhar and put pressure on Pakistan to rein him in, China said it was of the view that the United Nations Security Council 1267 Sanctions Committee needed more time to “deliberate” on the listing. China had on March 31 placed a technical hold — the only one of the UNSC’s 15 members to do so — which effectively delayed the issue by six months. That hold was to lapse on Monday, but Beijing said on Saturday it would further extend the hold.

“The technical hold on India’s listing application submitted to the 1267 committee in March, 2016 has already been extended,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. “China always maintains that on the matter of listing, the 1267 Committee should stick to the main principles of objectivity, impartiality and professionalism, base its judgments on solid evidence and decide upon consensus among the members of the Security Council,” he said.