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| - Fact Check: Did UNSC under India's presidency remove Taliban from terror list?
Has the UNSC removed the Taliban from its list of terror organisations? India Today has found that UNSC has not removed Taliban from its list of terror groups.
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India Today Fact Check
Recently, UNSC only dropped reference to the Taliban in a recurring paragraph in its statement on Afghanistan. It has not removed Taliban from its sanction list.
Taliban 2.0 has tried to present a more amiable image of the hardline Islamist group. It has promised development in Afghanistan and good relations with other countries. Several nations have also hinted at a broader role for the Taliban in the Afghan peace process.
Read: Fact Check: No, they are not 16 US servicemen killed in Kabul airport attack
But has the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) removed Taliban from its list of terror organisations?
This is exactly what some social media users are claiming. A viral post says the UN body, under the presidency of Narendra Modi, now recognises Taliban as an entity to drive forward the political process.
UN resolutions sanctioning Taliban
The Taliban is still considered a terror organisation as per a UNSC resolution. In 1999, the UNSCR 1267 put sanctions on Taliban and froze their funds and other financial resources because it gave shelter to Osama bin Laden, wanted at the time for the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The 2015 UNSCR 2255 kept “emphasizing its serious concern about the security situation in Afghanistan, in particular the ongoing violent and terrorist activities by the Taliban and associated groups, including the Haqqani Network, and by Al-Qaida, and other violent and extremist groups”
The updated UNSC sanction list still has names of many Taliban leaders.
UNSC drops T-word
Recently, on August 27, after the bomb blasts outside Kabul airport, a marked change was observed in a press statement issued by UNSC president TS Tirumurti of India.
In this press statement, the Council reproduced a paragraph from its earlier statement issued on August 16, but dropped the word Taliban.
Read: Fact Check: Old video viral claiming Pakistani Taliban issued threats to Modi government
“The members of the Security Council reiterated the importance of combating terrorism in Afghanistan to ensure the territory of Afghanistan should not be used to threaten or attack any country, and that no Afghan group or individual should support terrorists operating on the territory of any country,” the changed paragraph read.
India’s former representative to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, had tweeted both statements mentioning the marked change.
In diplomacy
A fortnight is a long time
The ‘T’ word is gone
Compare the marked portions of @UN Security Council statements issued on 16 August & on 27 August pic.twitter.com/BPZTk23oqX — Syed Akbaruddin (@AkbaruddinIndia) August 28, 2021
AFWA spoke to the former diplomat over phone regarding the viral claim. Akbaruddin confirmed, “There is no change in the UNSC resolution as far as sanctions on Taliban are concerned. Only a reference to the Taliban in the press statement is dropped.”
India’s role
It is true that India chaired the UNSC for the month of August when the latest statement without the T-word was issued by the Council. But peace talks between the Taliban and US had begun during the earlier Donald Trump administration.
The UNSC had earlier allowed travel exemptions for 14 Taliban leaders to participate in peace and reconciliation talks in various countries.
Taliban leader Sher Mohammad Stanikzai recently expressed hope to continue trade and economic relations with India like before, which he said is very important for the region.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, TS Tirumurti, is also the chairman of the Taliban Sanctions Committee till December 31, 2021. Therefore, India will play a crucial role in deciding upon the delisting of Taliban leaders from the sanction list and also the extension of travel exemptions for the 14 Taliban leaders.
Hence, it can be concluded that the UNSC in its recent press statement has only dropped the word Taliban, but the group still finds a place in the sanction list as a terror group.
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