Saturday, July 16, 2011 – In order to encourage peaceful reconciliation in war-torn Afghanistan, UN Security Council committee overseeing sanctions removed 14 Taliban leaders from an international blacklist.
On Friday, Peter Wittig, Germany’s UN ambassador who heads the Security Council for the month of July said the decision “sends a strong signal: the Security Council and the international community support the efforts of the Afghan government to engage reconciled Taliban in a political dialogue in order to achieve peace and security in Afghanistan.”
Mr. Wittig further added, the names of Taliban members who have been removed from the black list includes Arsalan Rahmani Daulat, Habibullah Fawzi, Sayeedur Rahman Haqani and Faqir Mohammad, all members of Afghanistan’s peace council.
He also said, “The international community recognizes efforts made by member of the High Peace Council to work towards peace, stability, and reconciliation.”
Mr. Wittig said, “All Afghans are encouraged to join these efforts. The message is clear: engaging for peace pays off.”
At least 137 members of the Taliban group were on a sanctions list that called for an asset freeze, a travel ban and an arms embargo, ahead of the Friday decision.
Despite the names of a few Taliban leaders, Wittig did not release the names of the other Taliban members removed from the list.
To encourage the Taliban to join reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan, The United Nations Security Council on June 17 split the international sanctions regime for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Two resolutions were passed by the council unanimously that set up one new blacklist of individuals and organizations accused of links to Al-Qaeda and a second for those linked to the Taliban militia.
Same UN sanction committee have been handling the two groups until now. But, to highlight the divide between Al-Qaeda’s global jihadist agenda and the Taliban’s focus on Afghanistan, the international powers wanted to separate the two groups.
The sanctions committee was set up in 1999 when Al-Qaeda had major bases in the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan until they were driven out of power by US-led forces.
