Fact Check: UNSC did not remove Taliban from terror list under India's presidency
Social media users are claiming that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), under India's presidency, has removed the Taliban from its terror list.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 4 Sep 2021 1:00 PM GMT
Hyderabad: Social media users are claiming that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), under India's presidency, has removed the Taliban from its terror list.
A user tweeted: "संयुक्त राष्ट्र सुरक्षा परिषद ने तालिबान को आतंकवादी संगठनों की लिस्ट से बाहर कर दिया है। और हां, संयुक्त राष्ट्र सुरक्षा परिषद की अध्यक्षता भारत के पास है, और भारत में 56 इंच की सरकार है।"
"UNSC has removed the Taliban from the list of terrorist organizations. Also, the Presidency of the UNSC is with India, where there is a government of "56 inches (sic)," reads the English translation of the message.
The link to the post can be viewed here.
Similar posts can be seen here.
Fact check:
The claim is false.
NewsMeter performed a keyword search and found that the UNSC does not maintain a list of terrorist organizations like that of the US State Department, or the Government of Canada and others.
https://www.state.gov/foreign-
https://www.publicsafety.gc.
We found that it maintains a list of entities and individuals against whom or which the UNSC has imposed sanctions under various mandates. Such committees include North Korea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Mali, and South Sudan.
In 1999, the UNSC authorized imposed sanctions against the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and Osama Bin Laden under resolution 1267. Those were further strengthened and enhanced in December 2000 and January 2003. Later it encompassed the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] (Da'esh) in 2015.
There are 262 individuals and 89 entities on the UNSC sanction committee list.
https://www.un.org/
UNSC sanctions are considered to be binding on countries. It requires countries to take steps like freezing assets and funding, ceasing arms trade, travel bans on Taliban personnel, and prohibiting the landing of aircraft operated by such groups.
Secondly, we found a report headlined, `UN removes the Taliban term still keeps a group in the sanctions list', on September 3, 2021.
Ministry of External Affairs has confirmed that the Indian Ambassador to Qatar met Sher Mohammed Stanekzai of the Taliban in Doha.
The UNSC released a statement on the situation in Afghanistan on August 27.
The press statement was released by India in its capacity as President of the UNSC. Observers found this statement to be in stark contrast with another one released by the UNSC on August 16, a day after the Afghan capital of Kabul fell to the Taliban.
The August 16 statement called on all parties in Afghanistan including the Taliban by name, neither to support terrorism abroad nor permit Afghan soil to be used to facilitate terror abroad.
https://www.un.org/press/en/
The similarly worded statement on August 27 dropped the reference to the Taliban.
"The members of the Security Council reiterated the importance of combating terrorism in Afghanistan to ensure the territory of Afghanistan should not be used to threaten or attack any country, and that no Afghan group or individual should support terrorists operating on the territory of any country", it said.
https://www.un.org/press/en/
Hence, the claim is false.
