US to strike off Taliban leaders' name from UN blacklist on case to case basis

Washington, July 15 (ANI): The United States has made it clear that it would consider Afghan President Hamid Karzai's proposal to remove the names of some of the former Taliban leaders from the UN's terror blacklist on a case-to-case basis only.

President Obama's Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said that the terror list contains several names which the administration considers as a potent threat to the country, and that it would be very careful while striking the names off that list.

"There are people on it who are dangerous threats to the United States and our allies and there are people on it who are active in movements who threaten to kill members of the coalition," The Daily Times quoted Holbrooke said.

Referring to the forthcoming international conference in Kabul, Holbrooke said the meeting , which is expected to be attended by several foreign ministers including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, would assess Afghanistan's follow-up plans to improve security, governance and other issues paving the way for US to remove some troops from the war torn country by the next year.

Holbrooke highlighted that during the July 20-21 conference, Karzai's re-integration programme is also likely to be discussed.

"The money is starting to come in. This will be a major focus of the conference," he said while referring to the aid being provided by the donor countries to help Kabul to lure Taliban fighters off the battlefield. (ANI)