The United Nations Security Council, at a meeting chaired by President Barack Obama, has unanimously passed a resolution cracking down on the flow of foreign fighters to militant organizations such as the Islamic State group.
The council voted 15-0 Wednesday to compel countries to make it a crime for their citizens to travel abroad to fight with militants or recruit other people to do it.
Obama is the only American president to chair a Security Council meeting. He also did it in 2009.
The president opened the session by voicing solidarity with France after one of its citizens was kidnapped and beheaded by jihadists in Algeria linked to the Islamic State group.
Obama said that more than 15,000 foreign fighters from more than 80 nations had traveled to Syria in recent years, and that those terrorists "exacerbate conflicts" and pose an immediate threat to other nations.
But he warned that that "resolutions alone will not be enough" to defeat Islamic State and other jihadist groups.
"Lofty rhetoric and good intentions will not stop a single terrorist attack. The words spoken here today must be matched and translated into action," said Obama. "Into deeds -- concrete action, within nations and between them, not just in the days ahead, but for years to come.”
Separately, the U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it was sanctioning 11 individuals and one charity organization for aiding the flow of foreign fighters to Islamist terror groups, including Islamic State, the Nusra Front and a southeast Asian al-Qaida affiliate, Jemaah Islamiya.
The move will freeze any assets the individuals have under U.S. jurisdiction, and prohibit American citizens and companies from any financial dealings with them.
