UN set to adopt resolution to 'redouble and co-ordinate' anti-Isis efforts

Vote in the Security Council was set to come barely 24 hours after text was presented by the French ambassador to the UN

The UN has long been paralysed by whether humanitarian interventions in the internal affairs of a member state can be justified, legally or morally (AFP)

With a rare rapidity of purpose, the UN appears set to unanimously adopt a sweeping anti-Isis resolution imploring member states to “redouble and coordinate their efforts” to prevent further terrorist horrors by the group and “eradicate” its safe havens straddling parts of Iraq and Syria.

The vote in the Security Council was set to come barely 24 hours after the text was presented in New York by the French ambassador to the UN, François Delattre. Stunned by the Paris attacks one week ago, the French government was gambling that a new sense of crisis in the chamber would trump months of division on the combined issues of Isis and the Syrian civil war.

The pressure was greatest on Russia and China, veto-wielding permanent members traditionally averse to resolutions that could be perceived as interference in another country’s affairs. But Russia recently suffered the bombing of the Metrojet airliner over Sinai carrying passengers to St Petersburg and this week Isis claimed it had executed a Chinese national.

The resolution does not invoke Chapter VII of the UN charter, which authorises the use of outside military force within the borders of a sovereign state. But it was crafted to give countries additional diplomatic and political cover and impetus to target Isis and eliminate it. The text calls on nations “with the capacity to do so” to “take all necessary measures” to “redouble and coordinate their efforts to prevent and suppress terrorist acts” committed by Isis.

The moves in New York came as the world watched another terror crisis unfold in Mali where Islamic terrorists stormed a hotel in Bamako, briefly taking 170 people hostage, before the hotel was taken back by security forces. Among the hostages were citizens of China, France and the US.

In the US, a political show-down had erupted over a Syrian resettlement policy. In a direct challenge to President Barack Obama who has promised to accept 10,000 refugees, the House of Representatives voted by a wide margin for a bill that would essentially bar all further Syrian refugees entering the US at least until new and onerous screening procedures are put in place.

The action by the Republican-controlled House may yet fizzle in the Senate, possibly sparing Mr Obama the humiliation of signing a law designed to torpedo his policy.