UN Planned to Pay $6Mln to Afghanistan for Security Before Taliban's Takeover - Spokesman

UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd December, 2021) The United Nations prepared its budget plans to pay in 2022 almost $6 million in security assistance to Afghanistan before the Taliban (under UN sanctions for terrorist activities) seized control of the country in August, and the budget proposal is currently being reviewed, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Wednesday.

"The budget proposal we have initially made for 2022 was prepared before the government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan fell. And some of that language in our budget submission is no longer current, so that budget is currently under review," Haq said during a press conference when asked to confirm reports saying the United Nations' plans to allocate $6 million to the Taliban to provide security.

Haq explained that since the Taliban's takeover, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan had requested security assurances and assistance from the authorities to provide allowances to personnel performing security services for the UN staff.

However, any such allowances or money is provided to the concerned persons directly and not through the Taliban, Haq added.

The Taliban took over Afghanistan after a decades-long invasion by the United States and its allies and a subsequent war, which plunged the country into a prolonged humanitarian, security and economic crisis.

The group set up an all-male non-inclusive government, led by Mohammad Hasan Akhund, who served as the foreign minister during the previous Taliban rule and has been under UN sanctions since 2001. Once in power, the Taliban imposed Islamic Sharia laws in the country.