"Masood Azhar's designation process should be technical in nature," US official Alice Wells said.
Senior US official Alice Wells, who is on a visit to Pakistan, has said that nations need to move forward on the issue of listing Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist, ensuring that the United Nations process in acting against terrorists works well.
"We would encourage the parties to move forward with Masood Azhar's designation as global terrorist. It reaffirms the centrality of UN's role in designating terrorists," Ms Wells, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, said in Islamabad today
"We believe designation process should be technical in nature. The international community must be able to take corrective action against any terrorist, whoever they are, wherever they are located," she added.
The United Nations Security Council is expected to meet today, amid indications that China could lift its hold on the proposal to blacklist Masood Azhar, who is based in Pakistan.
In March, China had put hold on a fresh proposal by the US, UK and France to impose a ban on Masood Azhar, whose terror group Jaish had claimed responsibility for the deadly Pulwama terror attack. The proposal was the fourth such bid at the UN in the last 10 years.
Talking about the Financial Action Task Force's assessment of Pakistan's measures to stop terrorist financing, she said, "we have heard some positive reports and partly seen some positive actions, but FATF itself will determine whether it meets the level of identifying and
Ms Wells, who was part of delegation headed by US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, said the US would never condone or support any use of "terrorist proxies against another country."
"We have been working very actively with Pakistan to combat whether it's al Qaeda or TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan). Any terrorist attacking Pakistan is enemy of ours and we share very strong counter-terrorism objectives in defeating extremist forces," she added.
Ms Wells said US welcomed Prime Minister Imrans Khan's statements affirming his resolve not to allow Pakistani soil to be used against any other country. "I would positively note that many comments the prime minister has made in public underscoring his government's commitment to moving away from non-state actors to ensuring that the national action plan that Pakistan has forged is implemented," she said.