Afghanistan Peace CampaignRussia and China’s requests were not accepted by other members of the Security Council.
The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on Friday on a resolution to extend the mandate of UNAMA in Afghanistan.
Based on a report by the Security Council, the draft resolution for the renewal of the UNAMA mandate has been prepared by Japan, and the majority of its members agree on this draft.
The report also states that some members have insisted on adding text to this draft about women’s rights; however, Russia and China have called for a change in UNAMA’s reporting, the release of currency reserves, and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
Russia and China’s requests were not accepted by other members of the Security Council.
“China and Russia argued that the preambular section should highlight other issues, including the economic situation in Afghanistan and the frozen assets belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank. It seems that China also suggested changing the reporting cycle on Afghanistan and UNAMA from every three months to twice a year and proposed adding language emphasizing Afghanistan’s humanitarian and development challenges to the operative section of the draft resolution. These suggestions received apparent support from Russia but were strongly opposed by a majority of other Council members and were not included in the first revised draft,” the report reads.
The UN Security Council meeting was supposed to be held on Thursday; however, the council mentioned the delay in holding this meeting was to receive more time for voting on extending the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
“Russia and China do not agree with them, and the reason is that this organization has its own specific goals, which are arranged for the interests of America, that’s why Russia and China are opposing,” Zuhurullah Zahir, a political analyst, told TOLOnews.
“If the UN extends the UNAMA mission, I think it will also be in Afghanistan’s interest and could maintain a channel of contact with the Taliban through the UN,” said Wahid Faqiri, another political analyst.
Previously, the Islamic Emirate, while considering the UNAMA mission in Afghanistan important, called for this entity’s neutrality in reporting from Afghanistan.