‘Delisting of Taliban leaders from UN on a case by case basis’

Afghan's request to delist names of certain Taliban leaders from the UN sanctions list would be taken on a case by case basis,an Obama admin official said.

Afghanistan’s request to delist names of certain Taliban leaders from the UN sanctions list would be taken on a case by case basis,a top Obama Administration official has said.

Last week,the Afghan Government had submitted a list of ten Taliban leaders to UN Al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee requesting them to delist them from the list.

The 15-members of the UN Security Council needs to have consensus in removing people from this list; which the Government of Hamid Karzai says is important for the reconciliation process in the country.

“The US position under the previous administration was to oppose any change in that list,” Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said during a news conference here.

The Obama Administration re-examined this policy starting late last year and decided to look into this list on a case by case basis.

“There were five names on the list that the Karzai government had specifically asked to be delisted. And that was done just before the London conference in late-January,” he said.

“Now,to get a name delisted takes Security Council approval,which means the five permanent members must do this,must agree. So there’s a UN process.

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Last week,I went to New York to talk to the Austrian ambassador to the UN,who is in charge of this process for the UN Security Council,and to various other UN officials and to the US Mission to the United Nations,” he said.

“President Karzai would like to have names dropped from the list. We agree to do that on a case-by-case process. We will not support a blanket ending of this list.

There are people on it who are dangerous threat to the US and our allies,and there are people on it who are actors in movements which threaten to kill members of the coalition,” Holbrooke said.

“There are also people on it who are dead. Seems to us we ought to delist them. There are people on it who are fully reconciled. There are people who live openly in Kabul or overseas. And we want to scrub the list down,” he said.

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“This is not a one-time-only event,as reported in some newspapers in the last few days. The UN is. But we are working on it,along with them,” he said.

Responding to questions,Holbrooke said US believes that reconciliation needs to be an Afghan-led process.

“We support Afghan-led reconciliation. I don’t believe that’s a change since London,” he said.

“Both the (US) President and the Secretary of State have laid out the red lines on this issue many,many times. We support Afghan-led reconciliation. We are not in direct contact with the Taliban.

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There may be other indirect contacts going on track two diplomacy,individuals who contact each other,other things — but they don’t involve US. And that’s our position,” he said.

Observing that delisting of would be an important step towards peace and reconciliation in the country,Afghan Ambassador to UN Zahir Tanin,told PTI,”We presented to the 1267 committee last week a list of new 10 Taliban members that should be delisted and they are the people in our view meet the criteria’s that is needed for delisting”.

Refraining from revealing the names for whom the request has been made,Tanin said,”These are members of the Taliban who are not part of the terrorist activities,that are going to be part of the peace process or are not a danger to the security of the people in the country”.