UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will be holding a
closed-door meeting on Monday on the regional situation in South Asia, where
tensions have risen between India and Pakistan after the terrorist attack in
Pahalgam, according to a diplomatic source.
The source said on Sunday night that Council President
Evangelos Sekeris received a request for closed-door consultations from
Pakistan's Permanent Representative Asim Iftikhar Ahmad.
Sekeris is convening the meeting on Monday afternoon, the
source said.
The Pakistani request said it was asking for the meeting
"in view of the deteriorating regional environment and rising tensions
between India and Pakistan, particularly the situation in Jammu and
Kashmir."
It "poses a threat to both regional and international
peace and security," Pakistan said.
Under the procedures of the Council, countries that are
not members are not allowed to participate in closed consultations, which are
also referred to as "consultations of the whole."
Pakistan is currently an elected member of the Council
and will participate in the meeting.
The meetings are held informally in a side room, not in
the Council chamber, and no records of the consultations are published.
Ahmad said on Friday that Pakistan was considering
calling a meeting of the Council because "kinetic action" by India
was imminent.
The Resistance Front, an affiliate of the Pakistan-based
Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the massacre of 26 people by the
terrorists in Pahalgam.
Following the attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed,
"We will identify, trace, and punish every terrorist and their supporters.
We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth."
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to External
Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz
Sharif last Tuesday to express "deep concern" over the rising tension
between the two countries.
He also expressed his "strong condemnation" of
the terrorist attack and said it was important to pursue "justice and
accountability for these attacks through lawful means," according to his
Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Pakistan has mounted a diplomatic campaign at the UN,
with Ahmad meeting Guterres, General Assembly President Philemon Yang, the
representatives of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation members, and others in
an attempt to assert its claims of innocence and call for de-escalation.
