KABUL—Russia is hindering the removal of one of Afghanistan’s most notorious warlords from a United Nations sanctions list, Afghan and Western officials said Monday, a move that could complicate efforts to implement a peace deal seen as a model for a similar accords with the Taliban and other insurgent groups.
The agreement reached in September between the Afghan government and Hezb-e Islami, an Islamist political and militant group led by the warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was hailed by the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a hopeful sign in efforts to end bloodshed in Afghanistan.
Under the terms of the deal, the Afghan government asked the U.N. in December to take Mr. Hekmatyar off its list of those subject to international sanctions for ties to the militant group al Qaeda.
During the 10-day period for member states to respond, Russia said it needed more time to consider the request. According to U.N. rules, it has up to six months to provide reasoning for its opposition.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Monday that Moscow had put the delisting on hold but hadn’t blocked it. She didn’t explain why Russia needed more time to consider the move.
U.N. officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Hezb-e Islami’s currently has little military and political influence in Afghanistan, but Afghan and U.S. officials view the accord as a template for peace agreements with members of the far more powerful Taliban who are weary of fighting to unseat the Kabul government.
Some of the officials said they believe Russia’s move, disclosed as it was hosting a meeting last week in Moscow of representatives from China and Pakistan to discuss peace and stability in Afghanistan, may be part of a broader effort to counteract U.S. influence in the Central Asian nation.
“For the Russians, it’s just putting their foot down,” a foreign diplomat said. “I haven’t seen any good reason for it.”
Under the accord, Mr. Hekmatyar was to be included in government decisions and members of Hezb-e Islami were to be integrated into Afghanistan’s military and government ministries. The group was also to receive unspecified compensation for what is described in the accord as previously unfair exclusion from Afghanistan’s government.
While the success of the September deal doesn’t hinge his removal from list, failure to do so could complicate the other aspects of the accord and leave Mr. Hekmatyar vulnerable to arrest.
A spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Monday that all countries should cooperate to build peace and “support intra-Afghan peace talks and the peace deal with Hezb-e Islami.”
Hezb-e Islami spokesman Hameed Azizi urged the Afghan government to put pressure on the U.N. and foreign governments to remove Mr. Hekmatyar from the sanctions list and proceed with the implementation of the peace deal.
“If any country is against the delisting of our leader from the blacklist, that country also is against peace in Afghanistan and wants the continuity of war,” he said.
Mr. Hekmatyar and Hezb-e Islami became close allies of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s main allies during the fight to expel Soviet forces from the country following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, receiving millions of dollars in aid from the U.S., Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
In the civil war that engulfed Afghanistan after Soviet forces were expelled, he and his fighters shelled civilian neighborhoods in the Afghan capital Kabul with impunity, killing thousands and reducing many parts of the capital to rubble. He also served two brief stints as prime minister before the Taliban took control of Kabul in September 1996.
Mr. Hekmatyar fled to Iran following the Taliban takeover, then took up arms against the U.S.-led coalition that invaded Afghanistan and removed the Taliban in 2001. It carried out hundreds of attacks against Afghan troops and international forces, though its military and political influence have dwindled in recent years. In 2003, the U.S. designated Mr. Hekmatyar a global terrorist.
Hezb-e Islami’s strength has waned in recent years, with the U.S. Department of Defense saying in 2013 that the threat posed by the group was largely insignificant.
Afghan and Western officials acknowledge Mr. Hekmatyar’s brutal past but say his diminished influence in today’s Afghanistan makes his removal from the U.N. sanctions list a reasonable price to pay for an agreement that could set the stage for a broader peace in the country.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-blocking-afghan-peace-deal-1483378461
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