No requests for UN Security Council meeting

United Nations, May 9 There have been no requests for a Security Council meeting on the situation between India and Pakistan, according to UN Mission of Greece, which holds the presidency this month.

"Since the closed consultations on Monday, no request has been received for a new meeting yet," the mission said on Wednesday night.

Neither Pakistan nor the other 14 members of the Council had requested a meeting.

Asked if Pakistan was seeking a UN Security Council meeting, the country's Permanent Representative to UN Asim Iftikhar Ahmed said cryptically, "We are watching the situation."

On Monday, the Council held a closed-door consultation on the situation in South Asia with a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General Mohamed Khaled Khiari.

India, in principle, is opposed to the Council getting involved with what it considers is a bilateral matter under the terms of the 1972 Simla Agreement between the leaders of the two countries.

While there has been a universal call for de-escalation, any Council session will be just a talking shop as any substantive, implementable resolution will not be possible to be adopted as of now as the unanimity of permanent members is not there.

Earlier on May 6, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) pulled up Pakistan and asked tough questions concerning the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam at its closed session amid the escalating tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.

The members slammed Islamabad and questioned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba's involvement in the Pahalgam attack, which killed 26 people.

Though Pakistan claimed that the meeting largely served and achieved the objectives of the UNSC's meeting, reports showed that it flopped miserably.

In the meeting, which was called at the request of Pakistan's Permanent Representative Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, he claimed that his country was not involved in the terror attack.

Though the session was a closed consultation and had no official records, the UNSC members called for dialogue and restraint to resolve the issues.

After the meeting on Monday, UNSC President Evangelos Sekeris told reporters, "The Security Council is always helpful in such efforts" to de-escalate. It is the responsibility of the Council. It was a productive and helpful meeting. Since the meeting was a closed consultation, its proceedings are secret without official records."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the situation was at a "boiling point" and asked the two countries to "step back from the brink".

"It is also essential -- especially at this critical hour -- to avoid a military confrontation that could easily spin out of control," he said.

Condemning “strongly” the terrorist massacre of 26 people in Pahalgam last month, he said, "I understand the raw feelings following the awful terror attack”.

Notably, The Resistance Front (TRF), an affiliate of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack, in which 25 Indians and one Nepalese national were killed.

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