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Taliban React To U.N. Sanctions Imposition
CAIRO (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Afghanistan’s ruling faction, the Taliban, threatened Wednesday to withdraw from U.N.-sponsored peace talks if Security Council sanctions against the Islamic movement take effect in 30 days.
In an earlier reaction, the Taliban ordered the boycott of both U.S. and Russian products. Both nations co-sponsored the imposition of new sanctions on the Taliban regime.
"For 21 years, Afghanistan has been burning in the fires of war ... If the United Nations imposes sanctions, then the United Nations with its own hand is putting people on fire," said Taliban Deputy Commerce Minister Faizl Mohammed Faizan referring to sanctions approved by the U.N. on Tuesday.
The Security Council states that it is imposing sanctions on the Taliban unless it submitted Saudi national Osama Bin Laden, who is accused by the United States of plotting two attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that claimed the lives of 250 people in 1998.
U.N. officials said that the sanctions might halt U.N. efforts aimed at ending the civil war between the Taliban and opposition forces in northern Afghanistan. The last U.N. worker left Afghanistan Tuesday before the resolution was passed.
"It is not going to facilitate our peace efforts, nor is it going to facilitate our humanitarian work," said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
These sanctions, spearheaded by the U.S. and Russia, would limit the Taliban’s diplomatic delegations, reduce the size of its foreign missions, freeze Taliban assets in Western banks and would include the closure of Afghanistan’s Airlines offices.
Taliban leaders have reacted angrily against the resolution refusing to surrender bin Laden and described the U.S. as the “enemy of Islam”.
"The United Nations has no clue,” said Taliban’s Information Minister Qudratullah Jamal. “They use Osama when they do not have something else. Our policy on Osama will remain the same."
"This is an issue against our Islamic system,” he said. “We cannot change our system because America wants us to. Nor can we behave as they want."
Pakistan, another predominantly Sunni Muslim country with friendly relations with the Taliban, described the U.N. decision as “discriminatory”.
"Our fears have been born out by the reports of several international humanitarian agencies, which have stated that these sanctions have stifled economic activity inside Afghanistan,” said Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar. “New sanctions will compound the misery of the Afghan people."
“The sanctions would cause one of the greatest human tragedies of our time,” said Sattar
Taliban officials said the sanctions might also hinder the faction’s war against drugs. Amid international approval, Taliban recently launched a fierce war against drugs, including the destruction of a main heroin laboratory and the banning of narcotics production.
"If the people of the world understand that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan did this for the world, then the world should also recognize that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is a legitimate government," Mullah Abdul Hamid Akhundzada, Taliban high commissioner for narcotics, told CNN.
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