Afghan Interim Officials Urge UN to Remove Sanctions on IEA Members

Taliban authorities have once again asked the United Nations to remove the names of the group’s members from the UN blacklist, adding the international community should engage with the group instead of putting pressure.

The UN Security Council failed to reach an agreement to extend the travel exemptions, allowing 13 Taliban officials to travel abroad, which expired in August 2021.

“Some 20 to 25 Islamic Emirate officials are on the UN blacklist and have been sanctioned. Some of them have died, and few are working with the caretaker government,” Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban senior spokesperson said.

According to Mujahid, adding pressure and force will not bear results. The war of the past 20 years has proven that the people of Afghanistan will not surrender to pressure. Instead, engagement and negotiations are ideal options to reach a comprehensive conclusion, he added.

Moreover, including of the Islamic Emirate officials on the UN blacklist violates the Doha Agreement, according to Mujahid.

The Doha Agreement is a peace deal between the United States and the Taliban aimed at restoring peace in Afghanistan. the agreement was signed in Doha in 2020, finalizing the US withdrawal from Afghanistan contingent on Taliban security assurance that Afghan soil will not be used against the US by Al-Qaed and other terrorist groups.

One of the drawbacks of the Doha Agreement was the exclusion of the Afghan government, which granted the Taliban the legitimacy to negotiate with the US on international stages in the absence of Afghan authorities, according to some Afghan politicians and experts.

In the comprehensive Doha Agreement, it was also stated that human rights, the rights of women, ethnic groups, and religious minorities should be respected, which has not been fulfilled as of now by the de facto authorities of Afghanistan.

The deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, and the continuous violation of the rights of women and girls to education, work, and public life are the primary reason for the sanctions on the Taliban, according to a political analyst, Torek Farhadi

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