United Nations: The UN Security Council has dropped five prominent Taliban members from its sanctions blacklist, backing Afghan President Hamid Karzai's ambitious national reconciliation plan to bring peace and stability in his war-torn country.
The five were identified as Abdul Satar Paktin; Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad Awrang, a former Afghan envoy to the UN; Abdul Salam Zaeef, Abdul Samad Khaksar and Muhammad Islam Mohammadi.
Khaksar and Mohammadi are now deceased, Austria's UN mission announced on Friday.
In January, another five members were also taken off the list.
Those removed were Abdul Wakil Mutawakil, former foreign minister, Abdul Hakin, former deputy foreign affairs minister, Faiz Mohammad Faizan, former deputy commerce minister, Shams-us-Safa, a former official under the Taliban and Mohammad Musa.
Austria chairs the UNSC panel that maintains a blacklist of individuals and groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
The list has 135 Taliban members and they are subject to travel ban and asset freezes under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 adopted in 1999.
As part of his efforts to promote national reconciliation, Karzai had requested UNSC to drop the names of some Taliban members who were not linked to al-Qaeda from the terror blacklist.
Comments
0 comment