KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the team monitoring sanctions against the Taliban and associated individuals and entities for 14 months.
Resolution 2763 (2024), unanimously adopted on Friday, December 13, allows the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team to continue monitoring sanctions against the Taliban and Taliban-linked individuals and entities.
Resolution 1988, adopted on June 17, 2011, imposes an asset freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo on individuals, groups, undertakings, and entities associated with the Taliban, considering them a threat to the “peace, stability, and security of Afghanistan.” On December 21, 2015, the UNSC adopted Resolution 2255, which reaffirmed these sanctions against Taliban-linked individuals and entities.
With the new resolution, the UNSC has directed the Monitoring Team to gather information on instances of non-compliance with the measures imposed in Resolutions 1988 and 2255 and to facilitate capacity-building upon Member States’ requests.
“With today’s adoption, the Security Council has affirmed the continuing importance of the 1988 sanctions regime to supporting peace and stability in Afghanistan,” said the representative of the United States, which led the negotiations on the text.
“The Monitoring Team’s work is particularly salient given the Taliban’s increasing restrictions on the rights of women, girls and persons belonging to minority groups,” he said, expressing concern over the Taliban’s recent decision to suspend access to medical education for women and girls.
The representatives of China and Russia, however, while welcoming the adoption of the resolution, cautioned against attempts to shift the focus to human rights issues in Afghanistan. They argued that the 1988 sanctions regime was established to combat terrorism, not to address human rights concerns.
The representative of China urged the Taliban authorities to intensify their counter-terrorism efforts while calling on Western countries to immediately and unconditionally unfreeze and return Afghanistan’s assets and stop imposing unilateral sanctions against the Taliban.
The adoption of the new resolution comes as the Taliban authorities have repeatedly requested the Security Council in recent years to lift sanctions against the regime.
However, in recent years, the UNSC has repeatedly eased sanctions against Taliban leaders, particularly the travel bans, for short periods, allowing them to travel abroad and attend meetings on behalf of Afghanistan.
Earlier in June, the UNSC approved a travel ban exemption for four senior Taliban leaders, including Deputy Prime Minister Malawi Abdul Kabir and Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, to travel to Saudi Arabia for the annual Muslim pilgrimage of Hajj.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, also on the FBI’s most-wanted list with a $10 million bounty on his head, traveled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in June, where he held meetings with senior UAE officials, including President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi.
