Obama to seek UN resolution to thwart flow of militant fighters

UNITED NATIONS — United States President Barack Obama is planning to seek a United Nations Security Council resolution requiring governments to craft regulations and laws to thwart the flow of foreign fighters to militant groups such as the Islamic State.

Mr Obama will offer the resolution for a vote at a high-level Security Council meeting he will chair on Sept 24 on the sidelines of the UN’s annual General Assembly session, said a US official who asked not to be named.

The administration is tapping into the world’s focus on the Islamic State to pursue UN action, warning that the phenomenon of foreign fighters gravitating towards violent militant groups will only grow, the official said.

The US will make the case that these fighters pose the threat of returning to their home countries to carry out terrorist attacks, the official added.

A draft of the resolution was circulated late on Monday and obtained by Reuters. The resolution is also part of Mr Obama’s strategy to defeat the Islamic State militants, the official said.

Mr Obama was to consult with US congressional leaders on his plan at a White House meeting yesterday and discuss it later today in a nationally televised address.

Mr Obama’s resolution will require states to act to stymie foreign fighters’ travel and to boost international cooperation on sharing information through organisations, such as Interpol, to more effectively deal with the threat, said the official.

However, the draft text does not mandate military forces to tackle the foreign fighter issue.

The draft resolution is under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which makes it legally binding for the 193 UN member states and gives the Security Council authority to enforce decisions with economic sanctions or force.

The draft “decides all States shall ensure their domestic laws and regulations establish serious criminal offences sufficient to provide the ability to prosecute and to penalise in a manner duly reflecting the seriousness of the offence”. It would compel countries to make it illegal for citizens to travel abroad, collect funds or facilitate the travel of other individuals abroad “for the purpose of the perpetration, planning, or preparation of, or participation in, terrorist acts, or the providing or receiving of terrorist training”.

UN diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the council’s 15-member countries were likely to reach an agreement on the resolution.

The draft resolution generally targets foreign extremist fighters travelling to conflicts anywhere in the world, but has been spurred by the rise of the Islamic State — an Al Qaeda splinter group that has seized swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and declared a Caliphate — and Al Qaeda’s Syrian wing, the Nusra Front.

More than 12,000 people representing 74 nations have travelled over the past three years to Syria and Iraq to fight in the conflicts there, said Mr Peter Neumann, a professor of security and war studies at London’s King’s College who has advised the US and other Security Council members on the issue.

“Networks are being forged (in Syria and Iraq) that will be consequential and relevant for an entire generation to come,” he told reporters on Monday.

The Security Council last month unanimously adopted a British-drafted resolution targeting the Islamic State and Nusra Front, which condemned foreign fighter recruitment and threatened to sanction people who finance or facilitate foreign fighter travel.

The US draft calls on states to require that airlines under their jurisdiction provide advance passenger information to the appropriate national authorities in order to detect the departure from their territory, or attempted entry into or transit through their territory of people under UN sanctions. It would also require states to prevent entry or transit of anyone about whom they have credible information are seeking to plan or carry out attacks or join an extremist militant group. Agencies