Instead of real Taliban, UNSC removes 14 former Taliban from blacklist

PESHAWAR: Instead of delisting the real Taliban figures fighting the US-led Nato forces and the Afghan government, the UN Security Council’s Sanctions Committee on Saturday removed from its blacklist the names of 14 former Taliban officials who have no role to play in peacemaking efforts in Afghanistan.
In the past also, it had delisted several former Taliban members who were dead, had joined the government of President Hamid Karzai or were no longer active in Afghanistan’s politics and ongoing conflict.
Former Taliban foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil and Abdul Salam Zaeef, who served as Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan during Taliban rule, were among those who were delisted last year. It didn’t help the peace process in Afghanistan as the Taliban refused to enter into negotiations with the Afghan government.
Ten among the 14 former Taliban officials removed by the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee from the blacklist on Saturday were so unknown that Peter Wittig, the Germany ambassador to the UN who is heading the Security Council in July, didn’t even feel the need to provide their names to the media. He only read out four names because they once held somewhat significant positions in the Taliban regime.
These four are Maulvi Arsala Rahmani, who served as the deputy minister of higher education in the Taliban regime, the former deputy mines minister Said Rahman Haqqani, another deputy minister Faqir Mohammad and Habibullah Fouzi, who was ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Taliban rule.
All four are members of the High Council for Peace, the 70-member jirga led by former Afghan president Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani set up to promote the peace process with the armed opposition including the Taliban. It has failed to make any progress as Taliban have refused to deal with it.
The Taliban weren’t impressed by the decision of the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee to remove the names of certain former Taliban officials from the blacklist in the past and they won’t change their position regarding the peace process following the delisting of another 14 former Taliban figures. They have made it clear that the former Taliban were no longer part of their movement and weren’t authorized to represent them at any forum.
The UN sanctions imposed on the Taliban figures listed in the blacklist haven’t hurt the Taliban movement. The sanctions include ban on air travel, freezing of bank accounts and arms embargo. None of these sanctions were relevant to the Taliban way of working as they don’t keep their money in banks and have no need to undertake air travel. The arms embargo is also meaningless for the Taliban, who seem to face no shortage of weapons.
The delisting of the 14 former Taliban members also didn’t come up to the expectations of President Hamid Karzai’s government, which wanted the names of 50 Taliban figures to be removed from the blacklist. These 50 reportedly included certain important Taliban leaders and commanders fighting the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. President Karzai even wanted the names of Taliban movement founder Mulla Mohammad Omar and former mujahideen leader Gulbaddin Hekmatyar removed from the blacklist, but the US is adamant that they were ‘terrorists’ and irreconcilable and, therefore, couldn’t be forgiven.
Russia was said to be opposed to the delisting of Taliban leaders from the blacklist. Its opposition seems to be a factor in delaying decision on delisting the remaining 123 Taliban still on the UN blacklist.
Unless the ranking Taliban are delisted, there cannot be any hope that the Taliban movement led by Mulla Omar would be tempted to hold serious peace dialogue with the US and the Afghan government. Removing the names of former Taliban figures from the blacklist is meaningless as they have already reconciled with the Afghan government and have dissociated from the mainstream Taliban movement headed by Mulla Omar.