IEA calls on West to lift sanction, remove leaders from blacklist

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan [IEA] had called on the United States and the international community to lift their sanctions on the current government and to remove high-ranking IEA members from UN and US blacklists.

The IEA regained power in Afghanistan in mid-August after the US pulled out its troops, almost 20 years after the IEA was ousted by U.S.-led forces following Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The International Community has not yet recognized the IEA as Afghanistan’s government.

Bilal Karimi, IEA’s Deputy Spokesman, stated: “The officials of the Islamic Emirate must be removed from the blacklist and sanctions, and this is the inalienable right of Afghans, and this was documented in the long negotiation process, which was a very credible agreement signed in Doha with the United States.”

Earlier this month, Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi had also called on the United States to lift its sanctions against the IEA and said they seek the world’s “mercy and compassion” to help millions of desperate Afghans.

He also urged Washington and other nations to release upward of $10 billion in funds that were frozen when the IEA took power on August 15.

“Sanctions against Afghanistan would … not have any benefit,” Muttaqi said

“Making Afghanistan unstable or having a weak Afghan government is not in the interest of anyone,” he added.

Muttaqi emphasized that the IEA wants good relations with all countries including the United States.

The United States, meanwhile, last week formally exempted U.S. and U.N. officials doing permitted business with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan [IEA] from U.S. sanctions to try to maintain the flow of aid to Afghanistan as it sinks deeper into a humanitarian crisis.

Reuters reported that it was unclear, however, whether the move would pave the way for proposed U.N. payments of some $6 million to the IEA for security.

Reuters on Tuesday exclusively reported a U.N. plan to subsidize next year the monthly wages of IEA-run Interior Ministry personnel who guard U.N. facilities and to pay them monthly food allowances, a proposal that raised questions about whether the payments would violate U.S. sanctions.

The Treasury Department declined to say whether the new license would exempt the proposed U.N. payments from U.S. sanctions on the IEA.