U.S. Asks U.N. to Add Names to Sanctions List

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/world/middleeast/un-may-add-names-to-blacklist.html

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UNITED NATIONS — The United States and France are asking the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on as many as 15 suspected terrorist fighters, recruiters and fund-raisers, including some connected to the Islamic State, American officials said on Monday.

They described the request as part of the Obama administration’s push for international action to defeat the Islamic State extremists who have taken over swaths of Iraq and Syria.

An American government official said adding the names to a blacklist known as the Al Qaeda Sanctions List is one of the main “deliverables” that President Obama wants to announce on Wednesday, when he leads a Security Council meeting dedicated to eliminating support for foreign fighters recruited by militant groups like the Islamic State.

Everyone on the list, which includes members of Al Qaeda and associated people and entities, is subject to an asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.

The Security Council is expected to adopt a binding resolution that requires countries to enact laws to prevent their citizens from traveling to join groups like the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS and is widely regarded as a terrorist group.

The addition of names to the blacklist was first reported by Reuters.

A spokeswoman for the Australian mission to the United Nations, which heads the sanctions committee, declined to comment.

At least a handful of the new names are tied to the Islamic State, including a Syrian provincial governor in Aleppo cited by the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Another is a Chechen jihadi active in Iraq and Syria.