The adding of the Tehrik-E-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) group to the sanctions list also comes as the Security Council eases pressure on the Afghan Taleban in a bid to encourage it to join peace moves in Afghanistan.
The Pakistan Taleban has been blamed for attacks that have left hundreds dead in Pakistan but also been linked to an attempted bombing in Times Square, New York last year.
Britain’s UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant welcomed the addition of the Pakistan Taleban to counter-terrorism list, a moved which has been backed by the Pakistan government.
“It sends a powerful signal of the international community’s solidarity and resolve in the fight against the TTP and international terrorism,” Lyall Grant said.
The group have claimed responsibility for kidnapping a Swiss couple this month, saying they could be freed in exchange for a Pakistani woman serving a jail term in the United States for shooting FBI agents and US soldiers in Afghanistan.
The couple was abducted on July 1 near Loralai district in southwestern Balochistan province on the border with Iran and Afghanistan.
Pakistani Taleban’s deputy leader Wali-ur-Rehman said his group was holding the couple but had not tortured them. He accused the United States of torturing Aafia Siddiqui, a 38-year-old neuroscientist who was sentenced to 86 years in jail by a US judge last September after she was convicted of shooting at FBI agents and soldiers following her arrest in Afghanistan.
Rehman demanded the release of Siddiqui in exchange for the Swiss couple.
"If America does not release Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, then the fate of the couple will be decided by our Shariah court," Rehman told a group of Pakistani journalists on Thursday in Shawal town, that lies between North and South Waziristan region in the northwest bordering Afghanistan.
"We will then take extreme action accordingly," he said, without elaborating.
Siddiqui's conviction was widely criticized in Pakistan, where many believe she is innocent and that she was mistreated when jailed in Afghanistan and later in the United States.
Anti-US sentiment runs high in Pakistan and already prickly ties between Pakistan and the United States hit a low point after the May 2 killing of Osama Bin Laden in an attack which Pakistan termed a breach of its sovereignty.
Rehman and many fighters are believed to have fled to North Waziristan after the Pakistani army launched a major offensive against them in South Waziristan.
The United States has been pressing Pakistan to extend its offensive in North Waziristan, which is also a major sanctuary for Afghan Taleban groups fighting US-led forces in Afghanistan. But Pakistan is reluctant to do so, saying its forces are overstretched.
Rehman reiterated the Taleban threat to attack Western targets in the world to avenge the killing of the Al-Qaeda chief by US forces in Pakistan in May.
"Our activities will continue in Israel, America and the European countries and Tehrik-e-Taleban is capable of hitting targets anywhere in the world," Rehman said.
The TTP has, however, not demonstrated an ability to stage sophisticated attacks in the West.
The United States added the TTP to its list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Rehman also threatened to carry out more attacks in Pakistan like the one on a main naval base in Karachi in May this year.
"We have more than 1,000 fidayeen (suicide attackers) who are ready for organized attacks."
The militant attack on the Mehran Base, only 24 km away from a suspected Pakistan nuclear weapons storage, raised doubts about Pakistan's ability to protect its nuclear arsenal.
Rehman said his group had the ability but could not think of taking over the country's nuclear installations.
