UN ends immunity from travel ban for 13 Taliban officials

United Nations is ending the travel ban immunity for 13 Taliban officials

The United Nations is ending the travel ban immunity for 13 Taliban officials until Security Council members agree on a possible extension.

On Saturday, the AFP news agency quoted diplomats as saying that China and Russia have asked for an extension of the travel ban exemption period for Taliban officials while demanding a reduction in the list of such Taliban leaders. Those who are exempt.

The United States has also said that the number of places that Taliban leaders can visit exempted from the travel ban should be reduced and specified. Under a 2011 UN Security Council resolution, 135 Taliban officials have been sanctioned and their assets were frozen.

However, 13 of them were exempted from the travel ban so that they could meet officials of other countries abroad. In June of this year, the 15-member committee of the United Nations Security Council removed two education ministers of Kabul from the list of immunity for violating women's rights by the Taliban. A Security Council committee extended the travel ban exemption period for 13 other Taliban officials until August 19, which has since expired.

The exemption period is now set to be further extended and diplomatic sources told AFP that Ireland, which is on the committee, has objected. Diplomatic sources told AFP that the latest proposal in a Security Council committee is to allow only six Taliban officials to travel for diplomatic reasons. The exemption will be in effect for three months if no council members object to it by Monday afternoon.

Among the 13 Taliban officials who were exempted from the travel ban are Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar and Deputy Foreign Minister Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanakzai. Both of these officials played an important role in the negotiations with the US government of then President Donald Trump, which paved the way for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2020