US President Barack Obama will head a UN Security Council session to push nations to curb the flow of foreign fighters to 'IS.' The planned resolution applies to all states, but Obama's real target is a close US ally, reports GHN based on DW.
When Barack Obama travels to New York this week to chair a UN Security Council meeting the message is clear. The US president wants to rally the global community's attention to what he considers a vital issue of the day. He did so exactly five years ago to the day - the first American president to lead a UN Security Council session - and spoke about nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, a key topic in the early stages of Obama's presidency.
This time Obama will highlight the threat posed to UN member states by the flow of foreign fighters to the "Islamic State" (IS) and similar terror groups. And just like in 2009 he will use the event to push for a Security Council resolution - last time to reaffirm the UN's goal for a nuclear arms free world, this time to take action against foreign fighters. And just like last time, he hopes the US-backed resolution passes the Security Council with a unanimous 15-0 vote.
The president will probably get his wish.
"It's an easy diplomatic gain and good optics because obviously everybody in the Security Council has an interest in seeing something like this pass", Faysal Itani, a Middle East specialist at the Atlantic Council, told DW. "You can hardly disagree with it on principle."
Even often obstructionist Russia will support the resolution as long it does not implicate its ally, Syria's Assad regime.