China supports travel ban exemptions for Taliban leaders

BEIJING: China has said it hopes that the UN Security Council will extend the travel ban exemption for the Taliban leaders of Afghanistan, media reports said.

The United States, the United Kingdom, and France - the three permanent members of the UNSC - want to impose travel restrictions on Taliban officials whereas Russia and China, the other two permanent members of the council, are in favour of waiving travel bans of up to 13 Taliban officials.

While speaking to media personnel at the Security Council Media Stakeout, the Chinese Ambassador at the UNSC, Zhang Jun, said that the humanitarian situation is critical in Afghanistan.

"For China, definitely, we hope that engagement is very much necessary since Afghanistan is at a critical stage," Zhang Jun, China's ambassador to the UN, told reporters Thursday, said Tolo News.

"We cannot say that we want the Afghanistan government to do something but meanwhile we don't give them any chance to have access to the international community. We cut off their linkage with other countries, so that is not reasonable, I said," the Chinese envoy added.

Meanwhile, in its defence, the Taliban said that imposing pressure and restrictions on Afghanistan is not a solution.

"The time to impose restrictions is passed--it had no result. Over the past 20 years, the restrictions extended even to bombardments. It was negotiations and engagement that changed the situation and saved Afghanistan and released the Americans from major fighting. The door for negotiations from our side is still open and they should not use a heavy hand," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said.

According to analysts, disputes between the West and East caused the disagreement over the travel ban exemption of the Islamic Emirate's leaders.

"The lack of extension of the travel ban exemption for the leaders of the Islamic Emirate is due to strong disagreements between the West, led by the US, and the East, led by Russia and China. This shows that Afghanistan has become a centre of a rivalry between West and East once again after 20 years," said Noorullah Raghi, an international relations analyst.

"If the Taliban don't reconsider their policy as soon as possible and don't lift restrictions on women's rights, rights of citizens, political inclusion, society and cultural matters, Afghanistan will be driven to isolation with each day passing," said Wali Frozan, an international relations analyst.

Notably, the Taliban's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, tweeted on Saturday that under the Doha Agreement all the sanctions against the Taliban should be rescinded and the Taliban officials warned that if the UNSC refused to extend the travel ban waiver, the decision would provoke them to maintain a stern stance which will not be in the interest of anyone.