The United Nations issued permit for the visit of the Taliban’s foreign minister to Pakistan.
The UN Security Council’s sanctions committee agreed on Monday for Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Motaghi to travel from Afghanistan to Pakistan next week to meet with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China, diplomatic sources said, according to Reuters.
Motaghi has been subject to a travel ban, asset freeze, and arms embargo under the Security Council sanctions for a long time.
According to the letter that reached the 15-member Taliban Sanctions Committee in the Security Council, Pakistan’s delegation to the United Nations has requested an exemption for Motaghi to travel to Islamabad between May 6 and 9 to meet with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China.
It has not been said what issues the ministers of these three countries will discuss. The statement said that Pakistan will bear all the expenses related to Motaghi’s trip.
Both Chinese and Pakistani officials have said in the past that they welcome Taliban-led Afghanistan in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure projects, part of the multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.
Afghanistan is a key geographical transit and trade route between South and Central Asia and has billions of dollars of untapped mineral resources. The Taliban took power in Kabul in August 2021 with the withdrawal of American forces after 20 years of war.
Last month, the Sanctions Committee of the Security Council also allowed Motaghi to travel to Uzbekistan to participate in the meeting of foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries to discuss urgent issues of peace, security and stability.
