Taliban Criticises UN Sanctions Extension, Calls For Policy Shift

Uzbek state media reported that the agreement was endorsed on Wednesday, February 11, and that the country’s transport ministry had been designated as the body responsible for implementing the project.

The joint agreement provides for technical and economic studies of a railway expected to connect Uzbekistan to Pakistan’s Kharlachi border crossing via Afghanistan. The Trans-Afghan railway is envisioned as a major regional transport corridor linking Central Asia with South Asia.

Mirziyoyev also instructed the foreign ministry to notify Pakistan and Afghanistan that Uzbekistan has completed its internal procedures related to the project.

The framework agreement was signed in January last year by representatives of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The planned railway route is expected to pass through Termez, Naibabad, Maidan Shahr, Logar and Kharlachi.

A joint coordination office for the corridor was established in mid-2023 and operates under Uzbekistan Railways in Tashkent.

The Trans-Afghan railway project was first proposed in 2018. Once completed, the corridor is expected to transport around 20 million tonnes of goods annually.

Initial construction costs were estimated at about $5 billion, but representatives of the three countries revised the projected cost to about $7 billion in 2023.

Several women told Afghanistan International that they had rented exhibition booths for 6,000 afghanis but were stopped when they arrived to participate. According to them, officials from the Taliban’s morality police were stationed at the entrance and refused to allow women to enter.

One businesswoman said organisers had initially informed them that they could take part, but women were later barred from attending. She said many female handicraft producers rely on such events to sell their products and had now lost that opportunity.

Another woman said she had been denied entry for two consecutive days despite paying the booth rental fee. She added that foreign women were allowed to attend the exhibition, while Afghan women were not.

The exhibition opened on Thursday in the presence of Taliban officials, representatives of domestic companies and delegations from several regional countries, including Iran. Taliban authorities said dozens of local and foreign firms were participating.

The Taliban have not yet commented officially on the reports.

The same exhibition was held in Kabul last year without women’s participation.

Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on women in Afghanistan. Girls have been barred from education beyond grade six and from universities, while many women have lost the right to work in government institutions and non-governmental organisations. The group has also imposed limits on women’s travel without a male guardian and on their presence in public spaces, including parks and some recreational facilities.

Writing on X on Friday, Gorka posted a photograph of American detainees and said: “We will not rest until Dennis Coyle and Mahmood Habibi come home.”

The United States’ representative at the UN Security Council has also accused the Taliban of using detainees as leverage. Tammy Bruce said the group must end all forms of hostage-taking and arbitrary detention.

According to Bruce, the Taliban have “openly sought the release of an al-Qaida operative detained in Guantanamo Bay, while paradoxically promising to uphold their counterterrorism commitments”.

The New York Times reported several weeks ago that secret negotiations between the United States and the Taliban over the release of American prisoners had reached a deadlock. The report said US officials and Taliban representatives had held confidential talks in recent months on the possible release of American detainees in Afghanistan.

According to the report, the Taliban are seeking the release of Mohammad Rahim, who has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2008 and is accused of cooperating with Osama bin Laden within the al-Qaida network.

The United States has repeatedly asked the Taliban to clarify the fate of Mahmood Shah Habibi, an Afghan-American citizen and former head of Afghanistan’s Civil Aviation Authority. The Taliban have denied detaining him.

Washington has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the identification of Habibi’s location and his safe return.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Habibi was detained in Afghanistan in 2022, days after the killing of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, a claim rejected by the Taliban.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has said only Dennis Walter Coyle and Polynesis Jackson are in Taliban custody.

US representatives have travelled to Afghanistan several times over the past year in efforts to secure the release of American prisoners.

Andrey Serdyukov, chief of the CSTO Joint Staff, said at a press conference on Thursday that the presence and activities of such groups in Afghanistan threaten regional security and could lead to the spread of terrorism to neighbouring countries.

He described the situation as a serious concern for Central Asian states.

At the same time, Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, described the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border as a key security hotspot for CSTO member states.

Expressing concern about rising threats along the organisation’s western and southern borders, Shoigu said the southern frontier, particularly developments linked to Afghanistan, remains a central focus of the bloc’s security agenda. He added that the situation along the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border is among the organisation’s top security priorities.

The remarks come after reports of 17 armed clashes along the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border last year.

All 15 members of the Security Council unanimously adopted the resolution to continue sanctions under the 1988 regime against the Taliban. Travel-ban exemptions for several Taliban leaders were not renewed.

The draft resolution was prepared by the United States.

The Taliban has repeatedly called on countries to lift international sanctions. However, concerns about the continued presence of militant groups in Afghanistan, restrictions on women’s rights and the absence of an inclusive government led the Security Council to maintain the sanctions regime.