The UN Security Council is set to vote on extending the mandate of the monitoring team supporting the Afghanistan 1988 Sanctions Committee, a move that would keep Taliban-linked individuals and entities under UN sanctions.
The monitoring team’s mandate expires on February 17. If renewed, the existing sanctions regime including asset freezes, travel bans and an arms embargo will remain in place.
The 1988 sanctions apply to individuals and entities associated with the Taliban who are involved in violence, arms supply, recruitment or other activities seen as threatening peace and stability in Afghanistan. Apart from a humanitarian exemption approved in late 2021, the regime has seen no major changes since the Taliban returned to power.
The United States has rejected most requests this year for exemptions from travel bans, according to diplomatic correspondence. In a letter to committee members last summer, Washington said it would review exemption requests on a case-by-case basis with increased scrutiny, arguing that the Taliban continued to use what it described as hostage diplomacy and had failed to meet counterterrorism commitments.
Following that stance, some countries have opted to notify the committee of travel by sanctioned Taliban members rather than formally request exemptions.
The Afghanistan 1988 Sanctions Committee is a subsidiary body of the Security Council responsible for overseeing implementation of the measures. It designates sanctioned individuals and entities, decides on exemption requests and reports to the council. The monitoring team assists the committee by preparing reports, making recommendations and reviewing the sanctions list.
The latest negotiations on the monitoring team’s mandate were held in December 2024 and resulted in an extension of the mandate, keeping the Taliban under sanctions.
Issues cited by diplomats as factors in favour of extending the sanctions include the Taliban’s reported links to groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, al-Qaida and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement; policies restricting women’s rights, including bans on girls’ education; and the absence of what critics describe as an inclusive government.
The monitoring team also supports the ISIL and al-Qaida sanctions committee. Under Resolution 2734, adopted in June 2024, that mandate runs until June 2027.
