Kabul Asks UNSC to Lift Sanctions on Officials

Following the end of the travel exemption for some officials of the Islamic Emirate, Kabul is once again asking that the United Nations Security Council lift the sanctions imposed on the current government officials.

The Islamic Emirate’s deputy spokesman, Bilal Karimi, warned that the sanctions will put Kabul further apart from the international community, and that this distance will have unfavorable effects.

“It is good that they should come together and bring the Islamic Emirate to the international level as a responsible and prominent system in the world. There should be an emphasis on adopting diplomatic means,” Karimi said.

Since the travel exemption expired, Kabul officials have not visited any countries in the past two weeks, and it is unclear when the UN Security Council will make a decision on this issue.

However, some political analysts believe that if the travel exemptions for the current government officials are not extended, Afghanistan will go further into political isolation.

According to the analysts, one of the main reasons for not extending the travel exemption for officials of the Islamic Emirate is the failure to implement the Doha Agreement.

“It’s possible that they’ll gradually impose these limits on Afghanistan’s business, which would paralyze yet another large class of ours and result in severe persecution for the Afghan people…,” said Sayed Ishaq Gailani, Leader of the National Solidarity Movement of Afghanistan.

“There have been three issues that prevented the UN Security Council from making a decision regarding the Taliban delegation’s travel. First, the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council cannot agree. The second is that the Taliban group failed to uphold its obligations to the international community and the Afghan people, one of which is to respect Afghan citizens’ fundamental rights,” said Nematullah Bizhan, international relations expert.

Human Rights Watch asked the UN not to extend the existing government officials’ travel exemption as a result of the closure of girls’ schools in Afghanistan.

“Human Rights Watch has four demands of the international community for how they should be responding to the intense women’s rights crisis in Afghanistan. The first is to the Security Council. The Security Council should permanently end all exemptions to the travel bans that are covering and restricting some Taliban leaders. The Security Council should be looking to add more Taliban leaders to the list of people subject to travel bans and to add other measures and based on their involvement in human rights violations,” said the associate director of the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch, Heather Barr.

The first deputy of the prime minister, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the second deputy Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi, the political deputy of the prime minister Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, the acting minister of foreign affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi, the political deputy of the foreign ministry Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the minister of mines and petroleum Shahabuddin Delawar, the intelligence director Abdulhaq Wasiq, minister of information and culture Khairullah Khairkhah, deputy minister defense Fazel Mazloum, minister of economy Din Mohammad Hanif, minister of Haj Noor Mohammad Saqib, minister of borders and tribes Noorullah Noori and minister of energy and water Latif Mansour are those whose travel ban exemption period has ended, and they cannot travel abroad.