US, Russia Jointly Introduce Draft Resolution on Taliban SanctionsThe United States and Russia on Thursday, December 7, jointly introduce a draft resolution in the United Nations Security Council, calling for an arms embargo against the Taliban, the biggest warring party in Afghanistan.The draft resolution also seeks to pressure the Taliban, which has gained control of 90 percent of the land of the country, to close alleged terrorist training camps and hand over Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden charged by the United States with plotting the bombings of two US embassies in Africa in 1998. The draft resolution will tighten an existing flight embargo and a freeze on the Taliban's assets abroad, and ban the sale of chemicals used to convert opium to heroin. No date has been set for the 15-member Security Council to adopt the draft resolution but it is expected to be approved after some amendments, according to a UN diplomat. A year ago, the Security Council froze the Taliban's assets and imposed an air embargo on the Taliban-run Ariana Afghan Airlines to force it to hand over bin Laden. However, the Taliban refused, saying that the United States had offered them no proof of bin Laden's involvement in the bombings which killed at least 225 people and wounded more than 4,000. |
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