KABUL (SW): The Afghan government has sent a formal request to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to lift sanctions against the members of the Hezb-e-Islami party.
Official at the National Security Council told Salam Watandar that the government has officially requested the UNSC via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) to suspend sanctions against Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbudin Hekmatyar. Lifting of sanctions imposed on Hekmatyar was one of the main points of the peace agreement between the Kabul government and the Hizb-e-Islami.
On Monday, Tawab Ghorzang, NSC spokesperson told Salam Watandar that Mahmood Saiqal, permanent representative of Afghanistan in the United Nation has formally submitted documents for the suspension of sanctions against the Hizb-e-Islami. According to him, the government has requested the removal of the sanctions based on the agreement.
Hizb-e-Islami expects that all sanctions will be removed against the leader and other members within 10 days. Hekmatyar has been offered a residence in Nangarhar province neighbouring the capital Kabul. Last week, Gulab Mangal; governor of the Nangarhar province told journalists in the provincial capital Jalalabad about the efforts to accommodate the former rebel leader here. The provincial government in Nangarhar has dedicated a complex of the Ministry of Tribal and Border Affairs in Jalalabad city to the former Mujahedeen leader and his close aides.
Hekmatyar was listed in the black list on 20 February 2003 as being associated with Al-Qaida, Usama bin Laden or the Taliban for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of” the Taliban and Al-Qaida.
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