KABUL, Afghanistan: The UN says it might remove the Afghan Taleban from the terrorism blacklist that includes Al-Qaeda.
Taleban figures would be on a separate list. The move could be seen as a political gesture to promote peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taleban.
| About as clever as promoting peace talks between Israel and Hamas. It just encourages them to continue in the hope of winning something through negotiation that they're incapable of winning otherwise. |
UN official Peter Wittig said Tuesday a UN sanctions panel will decide by the middle of the month whether to divide the list to recognize the two groups' different agendas. Al-Qaida is waging worldwide jihad against the West, while the Taleban is focused on Afghanistan.
| The two are linked, and anyway key personnel are loaned between different groups as their skills are needed elsewhere. |
The Afghan government already has asked a UN panel to take about 50 Taleban figures off the sanctions list, which keeps them subject to an asset freeze and travel ban. The committee will rule on many of these requests next week. |