United Nations wants to pay Taliban for security in Afghanistan: report

The United Nations is proposing paying nearly $6 million dollars to the Taliban-run interior ministry in Afghanistan – whose chief is on the FBI’s most wanted list and under sanction by the U.S. and U.N. – to provide security for its facilities and staff in the country.  

According to a report in Reuters, the funds would subsidize the monthly pay of Taliban fighters guarding U.N. facilities, as well as providing them a monthly food allowance as part of an agreement with the cash-strapped Afghan government. The country of 39 million is struggling with food shortages and a breakdown of public services following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban to power, which resulted in the cutting off of international aid money.

The Afghan Interior Minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the head of the Haqqani network, a militia blamed for some of the most violent attacks against U.S. and coalition troops during the 20-year war in Afghanistan. It has also served as a liaison between the Taliban and al Qaeda.

He is wanted by the FBI, which has posted a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest for his connection to a 2008 attack on a Kabul hotel that killed six people, including an American citizen, and an attempted assassination of then-Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Experts warned there was no way to tell if funds were diverted from their original purpose. The payments may also violate U.S. and U.N. sanctions on the Taliban.  

“The United Nations has a duty as an employer to reinforce and, where necessary, supplement the capacity of host states in circumstances where UN personnel work in areas of insecurity,” deputy ​UN spokesman Farhan Haq wrote in an email responding to Reuters’ questions about the proposed payments.

Haq also insisted the proposed budget “maintains full compliance with all U.N. sanctions regimes.”

Speaking anonymously, a U.S. Treasury Department official said that the Taliban and the Haqqani network remain designated under the U.S. government’s counterterrorism sanctions program, warning any supporters risked “exposure to U.S. sanctions.” The official declined to comment on the U.N. proposal.