KABUL (SW) – The Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, has downplayed announcement by Pakistani in regard to imposition UN sanctions on the group’s leadership.
Talking to Salam Watandar, the Taliban's Qatar office spokesman said the imposition of sanctions on Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group's deputy chief, and Sirajuddin Haqqani, the current leader of the Haqqani network, was not something new.
Pakistan has issued sweeping financial sanctions against Afghanistan's Taliban, just as the insurgent group is in the midst of the US-led peace process. According to the AP, the orders, which were made public late on Friday, identified dozens of individuals, including the Taliban's chief peace negotiator Abdul Ghani Baradar and several members of the Haqqani family, including Sirajuddin, the current head of the Haqqani network and deputy head of the Taliban.
The list of sanctioned groups included others besides the Taliban and were in keeping with a five-year-old United Nations resolution sanctioning the Afghan group and freezing their assets. The orders were issued as part of Pakistan's efforts to avoid being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which monitors money laundering and tracks terrorist groups' activities, according to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Last year the Paris-based group put Islamabad on a grey list. Until now only Iran and North Korea are blacklisted, which severely restricts a country's international borrowing capabilities, the AP added.
The US signed a peace deal with the Taliban on February 29. The deal is intended to end Washington's nearly 20 years of military engagement in Afghanistan and has been touted as Afghanistan's best hope for peace after more than four decades of war.
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