The United Nations Security Council has adopted a resolution urging the Taliban to keep its commitments on preventing terror groups in Afghanistan. The resolution, passed under the presidency of India on Monday, also called on the insurgent group to allow safe passage for those who want to leave the country, The Hindu reported.
Monday was the last day of India’s stint at the rotating presidency of the UN body.
The resolution sponsored by France, the United States and the United Kingdom was adopted after 13 members of the UNSC voted in its favour and none opposed it. However, permanent members Russia and China abstained from voting, according to The Indian Express.
The resolution was the first one passed by the UNSC on Afghanistan since Taliban took control of the country on August 15.
“The resolution demands that Afghan territory not be used to threaten or attack any country or to shelter and train terrorists and plan or finance terrorist attacks,” an unidentified official told The Hindu.
The resolution makes specific mentions about terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad, the official told the newspaper. They added that the mention of the two terror groups was one of the reasons behind India playing an “active role” in passing the resolution before it demitted the UNSC presidency on Monday.
India has for long maintained that the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad are groups involved in cross-border terrorism from Pakistan.
Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who chaired the UNSC session on Monday, told reporters that the two terror groups had to be “called out and condemned in the strongest possible terms”, WIONews reported.
“Today’s UN Security Council resolution is an important and timely pronouncement,” Shringla told reporters after the session. “The resolution makes it clear that Afghan territory should not be used to threaten or attack any other country.”
However, the resolution did not condemn the Taliban in any manner. In fact, it noted Taliban’s commitments about “the safe, secure, and orderly departure of Afghans and all foreign nationals from Afghanistan”, The Indian Express reported.
On August 27, the UNSC had dropped a reference to the Taliban from its statement condemning terror attacks in Kabul.
In earlier statements, the UNSC had urged the Taliban as well as other Afghan groups not to support terrorists. But in the August 27 statement, the UNSC removed Taliban and just said that “no Afghan group or individual should support terrorists operating on the territory of any other country”.
The dropping of Taliban’s reference from the UN body’s statement was seen as an indication of the member nations’ change of approach towards the insurgent group.
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