UNITED NATIONS: The United States is seeking a UN resolution demanding that countries adopt laws making it a serious crime to enlist as a foreign fighter for Islamist groups in Iraq and Syria.
The draft resolution, which has been circulated to Security Council members, is expected to be adopted at a special session of the top world body chaired by US President Barack Obama on September 24.
Under the measure, governments would take action against their nationals who travel or make plans to travel to a country “for the purpose of the perpetration, planning, or preparation of, or participation in terrorist acts.”
It would also make it illegal to collect funds or help organise the travel of foreign fighters for groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is on the UN terror list. The text demands that “all states shall ensure that their domestic laws and regulations establish serious criminal offenses sufficient to provide the ability to prosecute and to penalise in a manner duly reflecting the seriousness of the offense.”
About 12,000 foreign fighters have traveled to Syria and recently to Iraq from 74 countries, in the biggest such mobilization since the Afghan war of the 1980s, according to the London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), which tracks foreign fighters.AFP
