UNITED NATIONS, September 7 (RIA Novosti) - The UN Security Council on Saturday strongly condemned the “heinous and cowardly” beheading of US journalist Steven Sotloff by Islamic State (IS) militants and declared that IS must be stopped.
“The members of the Security Council strongly condemned the heinous and cowardly murder of James Foley, an American journalist, by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) [a previous name used for the group],” the council said in a unanimous statement.
The incident “again demonstrates the brutality of ISIL, which is responsible for thousands of abuses against the Syrian and Iraqi people,” the council said.
“The members of the Security Council underlined the need to bring perpetrators of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice. The members of the Security Council stressed that those responsible for the killing of Steven Sotloff shall be held accountable, and urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the United States, Israel, and all other relevant authorities in this regard.”
The Security Council concluded by reaffirming “the need to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts, and that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed.”
Steven Sotloff went missing in Syria in August 2013. On September 2, Islamic State militants uploaded a video showing his killing by a masked man. Previously, the Sunni Islamist militant group threatened to kill Sotloff, when it released a video of the murder of another US journalist, James Foley.
The Islamic State is a Sunni group that was involved in fighting the government forces in Syria before launching an offensive in Iraq in June. Later that month, the group announced the establishment of an Islamic caliphate on the territories that had fallen under its control.
