By KABUL - Fueling momentum for a political solution to the nearly 9-year-old Afghan war, a United Nations committee is reviewing whether certain people could be removed from a blacklist that freezes assets and limits travel of key Taliban and al-Qaida figures, the top UN representative in Afghanistan said yesterday.. Delegates to a national conference, or peace jirga, held this month in Kabul called on the government and its international partners to remove some of the 137 people from the list - a long-standing demand of the Taliban.. "The UN is listening to what the peace jirga is saying," UN representative Staffan de Mistura told reporters. "Some of the people in the list may not be alive anymore. The list may be completely outdated.". A committee is expected to complete its review at the end of the month and give its recommendations to the UN Security Council, which will make the final decision on whether to remove any names from the list. The United States, Britain and France, who maintain troops here, wield veto power on the council.. "If we want the peace jirga to produce results, we need to keep momentum," de Mistura said. "The aim is not war, it is reconciliation. And reconciliation . . . can only take place through constructive inclusion.". The jirga also supported the release of some Taliban prisoners in U.S. custody at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba and at Bagram Air Field north of the Afghan capital.
- AP
By KABUL - Fueling momentum for a political solution to the nearly 9-year-old Afghan war, a United Nations committee is reviewing whether certain people could be removed from a blacklist that freezes assets and limits travel of key Taliban and al-Qaida figures, the top UN representative in Afghanistan said yesterday.. Delegates to a national conference, or peace jirga, held this month in Kabul called on the government and its international partners to remove some of the 137 people from the list - a long-standing demand of the Taliban.. "The UN is listening to what the peace jirga is saying," UN representative Staffan de Mistura told reporters. "Some of the people in the list may not be alive anymore. The list may be completely outdated.". A committee is expected to complete its review at the end of the month and give its recommendations to the UN Security Council, which will make the final decision on whether to remove any names from the list. The United States, Britain and France, who maintain troops here, wield veto power on the council.. "If we want the peace jirga to produce results, we need to keep momentum," de Mistura said. "The aim is not war, it is reconciliation. And reconciliation . . . can only take place through constructive inclusion.". The jirga also supported the release of some Taliban prisoners in U.S. custody at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba and at Bagram Air Field north of the Afghan capital.
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