Sanctions against the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan were implemented by the United Nations in November 1999. The sanctions were aimed at terrorists, Osama bin Laden and members of Al-Qaeda.
United States sanctions were tightened against the Taliban under Executive Order 13224 after the September 11 attacks in 2001. After the fall of Kabul in the 2021 Taliban offensive the US froze the Afghan government reserves mostly held in US bank accounts. The authority to freeze these assets came from the existing sanctions against the Taliban. The country's economic future, highly depending on US aid, was called into question under the existing sanctions against the Taliban, complicating the distribution of international humanitarian aid to the beleaguered population.
Context
On August 7, 1998, the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were bombed and Al-Qaeda had thus triggered the international public's awareness of the organisation. The Security Council's condemned the bombings in general terms but did not address Al-Qaeda specifically. The same year, Resolution 1214 was adopted in which the Council demanded "the Taliban stop providing sanctuary and training for international terrorists and their organizations". On November 5, 1998 Osama bin Laden and his military chief Muhamad Atef were accused in the US District Court of New York for a planned attack on US defense establishments. Following this event, the US delegation to the Security Council legally required to demand the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden. Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s refused to hand over Osama bin Laden. In consequence, the Security Council implemented its first measures under the 1267 sanctions regime. In Resolution 1267, the Security Council justified the sanctions regime by referring to violation of humanitarian law in Afghanistan, discrimination against women and the presence of an illicit opiate production.
Goals
Resolutions adopted by the United Nation's Security Council, 1267 (1999), 1333 (2000), 1363 (2001), 1373 (2001), 1390 (2002), 1452 (2002), 1455 (2003), 1526 (2004), 1566 (2004), 1617 (2005), 1624 (2005), 1699 (2006), 1730 (2006), 1735 (2006), 1822 (2008), 1904 (2009), 1988 (2011), 1989 (2011), 2082 (2012), 2083 (2012), 2133 (2014), 2160 (2014) and 2210 (2015), together expressed the goal to fully disrupt the activities of the Taliban.
UN Sanctions
The UN sanctions were designed to prevent that Taliban from supporting and conducting acts of international terrorism. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267 imposed a series of travel and financial sanctions on members of the Tablian-controlled government of Afghanistan following the bombing of two US embassies by Al-Qaeda in East Africa and for Taliban refusing to surrender Osama bin Laden to stand trail in the US for the embassy bombings. In addition to this, the Security Council "strongly condemned [...] training and planning" of terrorists and terrorists acts and "reiterat[ed]... deep concern" of terrorist activities, as well as violations of international humanitarian law and of human rights, in particular discrimination against women and girls.
Following the US invasion of Afghanistan and the removal of the Taliban from government, the sanctions were amended to target specific individuals. These individuals were placed on a list at the request of member states.
Administration
Resolution 1267 established a Sanctions Monitoring Committee known as the al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee. The committee is composed of the 5 permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Namely China, France, the Russian Federation, the UK, the US and the ten other Security Council rotating members.
The al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee is one of three counterterrorism bodies set up by the Security Council. The committee is further supported by Monitoring Groups established by subsequent resolutions. The Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team established after Resolution 1526 in 2014 and the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and associated individuals and entities monitoring team established in Resolution 2253 in 2015.