Documents revealed that the UN Security Council’s handling of the terrorism sanctions list back in February attempted to add four more ISIS affiliates to the list, affiliates from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya, and Pakistan. Ultimately, only the last three affiliates were added, and the matter was hushed up.
The new documents show that the Saudi Arabia ISIS affiliate was excluded because of a “formal objection” from Egypt, an objection that came with no justification nor any plausible explanation, but the matter was immediately scrapped.
Egypt still isn’t talking about the move, but analysts familiar with the situation say they believe the move was instigated by the Saudi kingdom themselves, afraid that the inclusion of the group on the sanctions list would bring attention to the fact that there is a Saudi affiliate to ISIS.
Moreover, the Saudi kingdom has long struggled with well-placed citizens subsidizing terror groups, and the inclusion of the Saudi affiliate could draw a lot of unwelcome scrutiny to where that affiliate is getting its funding.
Meh, probably wouldn’t have gotten any more attention in the mainstream press of the English-language world than all the previous eveidence of Saudi support for extremists.
These designations are practically useless and does not help fight terrorism. The terrorist organizations do not intend to take their dispute to the security council or the general assembly. Pretty sure they do not give a hoot about what these lofty organizations say.