UN to end travel ban exemptions for 13 Taliban officials

UN to end travel ban exemptions for 13 Taliban officials
Under a 2011 UN Security Council resolution, 135 Taliban officials are subject to sanctions that include asset freezes and travel bans.
August 20, 2022, 9:40 am

Taliban would not tolerate 'invasions' from its neighours after protesting against airstrikes conducted by Pakistan (Photo: Twitter)

The United Nations is set to end travel ban exemptions for 13 Taliban officials Friday, pending any deal by Security Council members on a possible extension, diplomats told AFP, the Alarabiya English said.

Under a 2011 UN Security Council resolution, 135 Taliban officials are subject to sanctions that include asset freezes and travel bans, the report said.

But 13 of them were granted exemptions from the travel ban to allow them to meet officials from other countries abroad.

In June, the 15-member UN Security Council's Afghanistan Sanctions Committee removed two Taliban education ministers from the exemption list over the regime's curtailment of women's rights.

At the same time, they renewed the exemption for the others until August 19, plus a further month if no member objected.

Ireland objected this week, according to diplomatic sources.

FILE - Afghan women pass next of Taliban fighter in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 13, 2022. The lives of Afghan women and girls are being destroyed by the Taliban’s crackdown on their human rights, said Amnesty International in a new report Wednesday, July 27, 2022. The London-based watchdog criticized Taliban authorities saying that since Taliban took control of the country in August 2021, they have violated women’s and girls’ rights to education, work and free movement. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

China and Russia have called for an extension, while the United States has sought a reduced list of the officials allowed to travel and the destinations they can travel to.

The latest proposal on the table would allow just six officials to travel for diplomatic reasons, diplomatic sources told AFP.

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If no member of the Council objects by Monday afternoon, it will come into force for three months.

In the meantime, the exemptions for the 13 officials end at midnight on Friday.

Among the 13 are Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai.

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They were instrumental in negotiations with the US government of then-president Donald Trump which led to a deal in 2020 paving the way for America's withdrawal from Afghanistan.

A spokesperson for the Chinese mission at the UN, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council, this week called the Western position linking the travel ban to human rights “counterproductive.”

Source: alarabiyaenglish

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