(United Nations) The United States has submitted to the UN Security Council a draft resolution facilitating humanitarian aid to Afghanistan over a year, after having abandoned, forced by China, the idea of a case-by-case mechanism for this assistance that they do not want to see benefit the Taliban.
Revised after a first version rejected during the day by China, Russia, but also India, France or the United Kingdom, this text was sent to the Council on Monday evening and could be voted on soon. , according to diplomats.
The position of Beijing, holder of a veto right as a permanent member of the Security Council, is not known at this stage on this project obtained by AFP.
It states that, “for a period of one year, humanitarian assistance and other activities related to basic human needs in Afghanistan do not violate” resolution 2255 of 2015 imposing sanctions on entities linked to the Taliban.
“The management and payment of funds, financial assets or economic resources and the provision of goods and services necessary to ensure such assistance or support such activities are authorized”, specifies the project.
The text “strongly encourages providers” of humanitarian aid to “minimize any advantage”, derived directly or indirectly, from which the persons or entities targeted by the sanctions would benefit. A check on the destination of the aid is also planned within two months of its materialization.
Earlier, Russia-backed China blocked a first US plan to allow humanitarian exemptions from sanctions on a case-by-case basis.
In a concise tweet, Chinese Ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, said that “humanitarian aid and life-saving assistance must be able to reach the Afghan people without hindrance.” “Artificially created conditions or restrictions are not acceptable,” he added.
Enable humanitarians to act
The deletion of an entire paragraph from the first US draft, relating to a case-by-case exemption mechanism, responds to Chinese criticism.
The decision to limit the scope of the resolution to one year, not provided for in the first American text, aims to satisfy Washington’s European allies, who, like India, had criticized the absence of any deadline and demanded strong control over the destination of the aid provided.
While no humanitarian exemptions from sanctions are in force today, such a Council resolution must allow aid workers who have to “carry out financial transactions with ministries headed by persons under sanctions” not to find themselves in a position. to rape them, said a diplomat on condition of anonymity.
Since the Taliban’s return to power in mid-August, the United States has frozen nearly $ 9.5 billion from the Afghan Central Bank and the World Bank has suspended aid to Kabul.
On December 10, this international financial institution pledged to pay humanitarian aid of 280 million dollars to UNICEF and the World Food Program, for them to distribute in Afghanistan.
But this amount is grossly insufficient for a country on the brink of financial and economic collapse.
“The need for liquidity and stabilization of the banking system is now urgent, not only to save the Afghan people, but also to enable humanitarian organizations to act,” the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs said on Sunday. , Martin Griffiths, at a ministerial meeting hosted by Pakistan.
“Some funds have been released by the World Bank, but we need a lot more […] and donor contributions, ”said a UN official speaking on condition of anonymity.
No comments could be obtained from the US diplomatic mission to the UN.