Possibility of removing Taliban from terrorist list on the table at UN

Mustafa Kamel

In conjunction with the pressures implemented by the Taliban to gain international recognition, a new trend is emerging for the possibility of removing the movement from the list of terrorist organizations. The Kremlin announced that the process of delisting can be launched is the UN Security Council embraces the idea, which confirms that if the United Nations decides on such a matter, Russia does not have the right to have an independent mechanism in this regard in order to obtain economic and logistical assistance.

Removal from the terrorist list

The Taliban welcomed the statements made by Russian President Vladimir Putin about the possibility of removing the movement from the list of terrorist organizations. Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesman for the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, said, “With the end of the war season, the countries of the world must also bring about positive change in their relationship and approach towards Afghanistan,” stressing that the movement strives to establish good relations with the international community on the basis of the principle of reciprocity.

Regarding the possibility of removing the movement from the list of terrorist organizations, Zamir Kabulov, the special envoy of the Russian president to Afghanistan, said that it is currently not possible to talk about removing the movement from the list of terrorist organizations, stressing that this procedure must be based on a decision by the UN Security Council.

Kabulov, who is also director of the Second Asia Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, added, “The de-listing process can be launched when the UN Security Council adopts a resolution opposite to the one it previously adopted that the Taliban is a terrorist organization… When the new resolution is issued, it will be possible to start the process.”

The Taliban was pressing for international recognition, as the movement carried out a series of diplomatic moves in more than one destination in order to obtain international recognition, and from another party to obtain a mass of economic and logistical aid, which is rejected by the international community, including Moscow, which confirms that it is too early to talk about this matter, except to implement the promises made by the Afghan movement after it seized power in August.

UN is the decision maker

Regarding the existence of an independent mechanism in Russia to cancel the status of the movement, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov stressed that Russia does not have an independent mechanism to cancel the current status of the Taliban as a terrorist movement, because decision-making in this matter is a matter of the powers of the United Nations, noting that if the UN decided such a thing, then Russia has no right to have an independent mechanism in this regard.

During the Valdai International Discussion Club, which was held on Thursday, October 21, Putin explained that the decision to remove the Taliban from the list of terrorist organizations belongs to the United Nations, noting that things are moving towards embodying this step.

“The issue is It does not lie in the position of Russia, and as you can see, we cooperate with representatives of the Taliban and invite them to Moscow and communicate with them in Afghanistan… The matter is that these decisions were taken at the level of the United Nations, and we all expect from the Taliban, who controls the situation in Afghanistan, that things will work out in a positive context,” Puting said, noting that Russia will take its decision on removing the Afghan movement from the list of terrorist organizations based on that, and that his country will be in solidarity with the United Nations in its decision.

Meanwhile, in the US Congress, Republican calls to include the Taliban on the terrorist list escalated in September, as a number of senators called on the US administration to include the movement on the list of terrorist organizations. They wrote a letter to President Joe Biden saying, “The current version of the Afghan government poses a great danger to the United States,” noting that “the (Taliban) movement, since re-establishing its control over Afghanistan, has resumed its criminal and repressive habits, which it was practicing before the arrival of American forces in 2001.”