A United Nations waiver allowing 13 Afghan Taliban officials to travel abroad expired on Friday as the Security Council failed to reach an agreement on whether to extend the travel exemptions. China and Russia have asked for an extension, while the United States and Western nations have called for a reduced list of Taliban officials allowed to travel to protest the Taliban’s waiver of women’s rights and failure to form an inclusive government. as promised. Under a 2011 UN Security Council resolution, 135 Taliban officials are subject to sanctions that include asset freezes and travel bans. However, 13 of them were granted exemptions from the travel ban to allow them to meet officials from other countries abroad for peace talks. In June, the UN Security Council’s 15-member Afghanistan Sanctions Committee removed two Taliban education ministers from an exemption list due to the regime’s curtailment of women’s rights. At the same time, they extended the exemption for the rest until August 19, plus another month if no member objected. If no councilor objects to the curfew by Monday afternoon, it will be in effect for three months. The United States proposed Thursday to reimpose the travel ban on seven of the 13 Taliban officials and maintain the exemption for six others, but limit their travel to only Qatar, where U.S.-Taliban talks have been held, U.S. diplomats said. council.
Opposing proposal
Reporting from UN headquarters in New York, Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey said China, backed by Russia, has argued that exemptions to the travel ban are “as necessary as ever”. Russia and China have submitted a rival proposal to grant travel exemptions for 90 days to all 13 Taliban officials, but only to go to Russia, China, Qatar and “peripheral countries”, the diplomats said. Russia and China opposed the US proposal, diplomats said, and the UK, France and Ireland opposed the Russia-China proposal, insisting that the exemption cannot continue for all 13 officials because of the lack of progress of Taliban in fulfilling their commitments. women, inclusive government formation and other issues. A representative of the Chinese mission to 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”. The exemptions are “more necessary than ever,” the spokesman said, adding that if reinstating the travel ban is all the other council members want to do, “they obviously haven’t learned any lessons.”
“Involvement with the Taliban is needed”
Speaking from Washington, Afghanistan’s former ambassador to France and Canada, Omar Samad, told Al Jazeera that cooperation with the Taliban is needed to help the Afghan people. “China and Russia are pushing to continue the exemptions and even extend them to others, while others want them removed because they believe the Taliban have not fulfilled some of their commitments,” Samad said. On Friday afternoon, diplomats said, the US revised its proposal that would ban travel for seven Taliban officials and maintain travel exemptions for six others for 90 days without geographic restrictions. Russia and China are now considering this proposal. Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, up to 700 people have been killed and 1,400 injured, even as security overall has improved, according to a report last month by the UN’s political mission in Afghanistan. She highlighted how women have been stripped of many of their human rights, excluded from secondary education and subjected to restrictions on their movement.
