UN Lifts Sanctions On Several ‘Moderate’ Taliban Leaders

The UN Security Council’s sanctions committee has released an updated list of 22 senior Taliban officials subject to sanctions, along with brief biographies.

The UN Security Council’s sanctions committee has released an updated list of 22 senior Taliban officials subject to sanctions, along with brief biographies.
In the updated list, the committee added Aziz-Ur-Rahman Abdul Ahad, the Taliban’s third secretary at their embassy in the United Arab Emirates.
Abdul Ahad did not appear on the committee’s previous sanctions list.
On 12 July 2024, the UN sanctions committee published a list of 61 Taliban officials under sanctions. In the latest update, the names of at least 39 senior Taliban officials and members who appeared on last year’s list have been removed.
Among the prominent figures removed from the new list are Shahabuddin Delawar, head of the Taliban’s Red Crescent Society; Abbas Stanikzai, the deputy foreign minister for political affairs; Hamdullah Nomani, acting minister for urban development and housing; Hamidullah Akhund Sher Mohammad, first deputy defence minister; and Noorullah Noori, acting minister for borders and tribal affairs.
In addition, the UN sanctions committee has removed the names of Jan Mohammad Madani Ikram, Hibatullah Akhundzada’s financial adviser; Yahya Haqqani, a senior member of the Haqqani network; Shams Ur-Rahman, senior adviser to Sirajuddin Haqqani; and Muhammad Taher Anwari, another adviser linked to the Haqqani network.
The updated list has also removed several deputy ministers from the ministries of borders and tribal affairs, labour and social affairs, martyrs and the disabled, promotion of virtue, finance, information and culture, and Hajj and religious affairs.
The committee also removed the names of several advisers to Taliban ministries and Taliban governors in Nangarhar and Logar provinces.
However, the updated list still includes Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the Taliban’s prime minister; Abdul Ghani Baradar, deputy prime minister for economic affairs; Abdul Salam Hanafi, deputy prime minister for administrative affairs; Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi; Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani; Minister for Refugees and Repatriation Abdul Kabir; Agriculture Minister Abdul Latif Mansoor; Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Fazl Mohammad Mazloom; former Higher Education Minister Abdul Baqi Haqqani; Minister of economy Din Mohammad Hanif; Qudratullah Jamal, deputy minister for tourism at the Ministry of Information and Culture; Nooruddin Turabi, head of the Natural Disaster Management Authority; Public Works Minister Mohammad Essa Akhund; Urban Development Minister Najibullah Haqqani; Hajj and Religious Affairs Minister Noor Mohammad Saqib; Intelligence Chief Abdul Haq Wassiq; and Khairullah Khairkhwa, governor of Maidan Wardak.