UN Sanctions Committee: Key Taliban Officials Involved In Drug Production & Trafficking

Referring to the assassination of the Taliban’s Minister of Refugees in an explosion on Wednesday (December 11), the ambassador emphasised that no one, including Taliban leaders, is immune to the threat of terrorism.

Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s representative at the United Nations, addressed the Security Council on Thursday, expressing deep concerns over Afghanistan’s deteriorating security situation.

Highlighting the recent attack, which claimed the life of the Taliban’s Minister of Refugees, Iravani urged the Taliban leadership to honour their commitments and to engage in a “comprehensive fight against terrorist networks”.

He also drew attention to the systematic violence targeting Afghanistan’s Hazara community, describing these attacks as acts of extremist brutality.

Addressing the severe humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, Iravani called upon the international community to respond with impartiality, without imposing conditions, and free from political motivations.

On the issue of Afghan refugees, Iravani stated that Iran hosts approximately six million Afghan refugees, incurring an annual expenditure of $10 billion to provide for their needs.

The ambassador criticised what he termed the “inadequate” support from the international community in addressing refugee needs. He underscored the necessity for sustained international assistance to countries like Iran and Pakistan, which bear a significant burden in hosting Afghan refugees.

Mujahid said that the decisions of this meeting without the presence of the Taliban are also "complicated". The United Nations Security Council will hold a meeting on Afghanistan on Thursday, December 12.

In an interview with National Radio and Television on Thursday, Mujahid called for handing over Afghanistan's seat in the United Nations to the Taliban.

He claims that by handing over the UN seat to the Taliban, meetings on Afghanistan will be useful. According to the Taliban spokesman, without the presence of the group's representative, the Security Council meeting is "full of ambiguity”.

The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative Roza Otunbayeva is scheduled to speak at the meeting on the situation in Afghanistan.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement on Wednesday, December 11, that the meeting will be held on Thursday, December 12 at 7:30pm Afghan time.

The meeting is expected to review the human rights situation and the situation of women in Afghanistan.

The UN Security Council also held a meeting on Afghanistan in September to discuss the situation in the country.

Currently, the seat of Afghanistan is held by Nasir Ahmad Faiq, a diplomat of the former Afghan government.

The Taliban's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has nominated Suhail Shaheen as its representative to the United Nations, which has not been accepted.

The court said in a statement on Thursday that the defendants were sentenced to 19 lashes and one year in prison each.

The Taliban's Supreme Court wrote that the defendants were punished on Thursday, December 12, by the group's Fourth Zone Primary Court in Kabul. Hours earlier, the court also reported that two people had been flogged in Paktia province on charges of buying and selling alcoholic beverages.

In the past week, the Taliban has punished more than 10 people across Afghanistan on various charges.

"I also invite the leaders of other groups opposed to the Taliban," he added.

Burchett had previously invited Amrullah Saleh, the former Vice President of Afghanistan, to Washington.

Saleh responded by saying that he would decide whether to travel to Washington after consulting with other political leaders.

Burchett said that inviting anti-Taliban politicians is an individual invitation and not a congressional one. He asked the US State Department to cooperate in issuing visas for Massoud. The US secretary of state did not make a specific commitment to the request at a congressional hearing, saying that he would "follow up with Burchet's office”.

Burchett did not say when he would invite Massoud and other Afghan political leaders to Washington. He told Afghanistan International that the issue is in its early stages and will provide more information to the media later.

The 40th meeting of the Afghanistan Working Group within the framework of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) was held in Moscow on Wednesday, December 11.

According to a statement from the Kazakh Foreign Ministry, the meeting was attended by representatives of the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Commonwealth of Independent States and other international organisations.

In the past three years, the organisation has always expressed concern about the activities of terrorist groups in Afghanistan, including ISIS, as well as the infiltration of extremists from Afghanistan into the territory of member states.

The Taliban has consistently denied the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan and have said that ISIS is not active in Afghanistan and cannot pose a threat to other countries.

However, ISIS continues to claim responsibility for deadly attacks in Afghanistan. In one of the most recent cases, ISIS-K claimed responsibility for an attack on Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban's minister of refugees. The Taliban minister was killed in a suicide attack on Wednesday, December 11.