The spokesperson for United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday said that Guterres expected all member states of the world body to “live up” to their obligations under the resolutions of the Security Council, PTI reported. The secretary general issued the statement a day after the United States, in its Congressional-mandated 2019 Country Reports on Terrorism, accused Pakistan of remaining a “safe harbour” for regional terrorist groups.

Stéphane Dujarric, Guterres’ spokesperson, told reporters that he would not like to comment specifically on the US report. However, Dujarric added: “Obviously, as a matter of principle, we do expect all member states to live up to their obligations as laid out in any relevant Security Council resolution or Security Council decision.”

“Pakistan took modest steps in 2019 to counter terror financing and restrain India-focused militant groups from conducting large-scale attacks, following the February [2019] attack on a security convoy in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir linked to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed,” the US report said. “However, Pakistan remained a safe harbor for other regionally focused terrorist groups.”

The report said Pakistan allowed groups targeting Afghanistan and India, such as the Afghan Taliban, Haqqani Network, Lashkar-e-Taiba and its front organisations.

The report also said Pakistan did not take action against Jaish-e-Mohammad founder Masood Azhar, and 2008 Mumbai attack “project manager” Sajid Mir, both of whom are believed to be staying in Pakistan as free men.

The United States said that Pakistan made progress towards meeting the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force, a global anti-terror watchdog, but did not fulfil the aims of the Action Plan the organisation had set out for it. On Wednesday, the FATF decided to keep Pakistan on its “grey list”.

In June 2018, Pakistan was put on FATF’s “grey list” and given a 27-point Action Plan to implement in order to be taken off of it. In October 2019, the watchdog indicted Pakistan for failing to deliver on 22 out of 27 targets. The task force also warned Pakistan that it would be blacklisted if it failed to achieve the targets by February 2020.

India, which is a member of the global organisation, has repeatedly asked Pakistan to take necessary steps to meet international standards in stopping financial crimes.