US on China's opposition on Masood Azhar ban: Veto will not prevent us from acting

UNITED NATIONS: The US said on Tuesday that countries using veto to scuttle sanctioning of terrorists will not "preclude" it from taking actions.

The US remarks come amid continued Chinese opposition to efforts to get Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN.

"The administration very much is looking at all of these avenues and some of the things we have talked about is sanctions and who is on the list and how we have managed that," US' envoy to the UN Nikki Haley told reporters here.

"And that is part of what we are going to try and find our place with is that we do want to make sure that we are calling out those that we need to call out," she said.

Haley made the remarks while addressing a press conference after assuming role of President of the Security Council for the month of April.

She was asked about efforts to get terrorists, particularly those in the South Asian region, sanctioned under UNSC's sanctions list and how another permanent member scuttles these efforts by using its veto power, a veiled reference to China blocking moves to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar.

"Are we going to have people that veto certain issues? Yes. But that doesn't preclude the US from acting and it certainly does not preclude us from trying to see if we can change that as well," Haley said.

"Our goal is to get more done together than we do separately. If we cannot get it done separately then we just move in another direction to still get the same things done," she said.
The US wants to make sure that it is leading towards a "result" and "not sitting back" and allowing things to happen.

"I think you are obviously seeing a very aggressive administration because we feel like in order to lead we need to act and in order to act we need to make sure we have those conversations with the National Security Council and we are having those conversations with the National Security Council," she said.

Haley noted that a lot has happened in the last two months of her assuming the UN ambassador's role under the Trump administration and a lot will continue to happen "but it is all about how we can make sure we are moving the ball".

Haley also described Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a "war criminal", saying what he has done to the people of his country is disgusting.

Asked about US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's remarks in Ankara where he said that Assad's status would be decided by the Syrian people, she said, "It's that we don't think the people want Assad anymore; we don't think that he is going to be someone that the people want to have."

"We have no love for Assad. We've made that very clear. We think that he has been a hindrance to peace for a long time. He's a war criminal. What he's done to his people is nothing more than disgusting," she said.

Haley said that the goal of the Trump administration is to do what needs to be done to defeat ISIS.

"I don't know that our goal is to talk to Assad in doing that...Now that could change and the administration could think otherwise, but right now Assad is not our No.1 person to talk to," said Haley.