PESHAWAR: More than 20 senators in the United States have tabled a bill seeking sanctions against Taliban and probe into Pakistan’s role in Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan.
The bill, ‘Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight, and Accountability Act’, was tabled yesterday (Tuesday, September 28) by members of the Republican Party. The Act states that the United States should impose a series of sanctions against the Taliban and those who supported the Taliban in their war against the United States in Afghanistan.
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The Act proposes that the United States should not recognise the group and should not allow any member of the Taliban to the United Nations or to the United States as Afghanistan’s ambassador or envoy. They also called for a reassessment of US assistance to all foundations that support the Taliban. “US should review the role of state and non-state actors supporting the Taliban – including Pakistan – between 2001 and 2020. They have provided the Taliban with safe havens, financial and intelligence support, medical equipment, training as technical or strategic guidance,” the act said.
The act calls on the US president to provide details of all the economic and security threats posed by Russia, China and the Taliban to South and Central Asia. Republican Sen. James Risch along with 22 fellow senators, introduced the bill to review the Biden administration’s “hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan” and the problems it poses. It also called for ban on the Afghan Taliban and their supporting governments, especially Pakistan and return of American equipment and weapons from Afghanistan.
After the details of the bill came to light, Pakistan’s Federal Minister Shirin Mazari, in a series of tweets expressed outrage, saying that despite sacrificing 80,000 lives, Pakistan was being blamed for US defeat in Afghanistan. Mazari said, Pakistan was being punished for being an ally of the United States in the “War on Terror” even though “the United States and NATO have failed to establish a stable government after 20 years of stay in Afghanistan.”