Shaheen call for lifting sanctions on officials

KABUL (TOLOnews): Suhail Shaheen, head of the political office of the Islamic Emirate in Qatar, has called for the lifting of UN Security Council sanctions on the officials of the Islamic Emirate following the imposition of these sanctions.

The head of the political office of the Islamic Emirate in Qatar told TOLOnews that the sanctions have not been effective and should be lifted as soon as possible.

Shaheen told TOLOnews: “All these restrictions that hinder interaction between the international community and the Islamic Emirate must be lifted to pave the way for positive interaction.”

Recently, the UN sanctions monitoring team said that 61 senior “Taliban” officials are on the global sanctions list, of which 35 are members of the cabinet and leadership of the Islamic Emirate.

The list includes senior officials of the Islamic Emirate, including Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, Prime Minister of the Islamic Emirate; Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, deputy prime minister for economic affairs; Abdul Salam Hanafi, Deputy Prime Minister for Administrative Affairs; Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, political deputy of the Prime Minister; Amir Khan Muttaqi, acting Foreign Minister; Sirajuddin Haqqani, Acting Interior Minister; Abdul Haq Wasiq, Director of the General Directorate of Intelligence; and several other members of the Islamic Emirate.

Moreover, some political analysts believe that the imposition of these sanctions will negatively affect the relationship between the Islamic Emirate and the international community.

“The imposition of sanctions on senior members of the Islamic Emirate creates a lack of coordination between Afghanistan and the United Nations, and the more these sanctions persist, the greater the distance between Afghanistan and the UN General Assembly,” Jannat Faheem Chakari, a political analyst, told TOLOnews.

“In this case, we need to see what reforms should be introduced in Afghanistan to release these individuals from sanctions, which would also benefit Afghanistan’s economy,” said Tariq Farhadi, an analyst.

Earlier, Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate, told TOLOnews that the names of 24 Islamic Emirate officials are still on the UN and EU blacklist. Mujahid described the failure to remove the names of Islamic Emirate officials from the blacklist as contrary to the Doha agreement.