Sanctions against Afghanistan
Background to the sanctions
UN sanctions against the Taliban in Afghanistan have been in place since 1999 as part of a sanctions regime targeted at terrorist acts which has also included sanctions against Usama bin Laden and followers of Al-Qaida (see also Sanctions against international terrorism, Resolution 1267).
In summer 2011, Resolution 1988 of the UN Security Council removed the sanctions against the Taliban from the consolidated list and established a separate sanctions regime relating to the Taliban and Afghanistan. This was due to the continued poor security situation in Afghanistan and because some of the Taliban had cut off contacts with Al-Qaida. The types of sanctions remain the same, however. In dividing up the sanctions regime, the UN quite simply transferred the Taliban-linked parts of the list of those subject to the sanctions to the new Afghanistan sanctions. The EU continuously implements these UN-approved sanctions and their amendments, including the division in 2011 and subsequent updates.