Journal Article — 25 March 2026

“Moving Beyond the Security Council’s Impasse to Support Afghanistan,” Aref Dostyar, CJ Pine, and George A. Lopez, IPI Global Observatory, (25 March 2026)

In this piece published in the IPI Global Observatory, the authors argue for the UNSC reviewing how 1988 sanctions against the Taliban should be aligned with clear political objectives. There has been a shortage of debate about the Council updating the sanctions’ conditions since the Taliban takeover. Current listing and delisting criteria are out-dated and the lack of benchmarks do not communicate Council expectations for how the Taliban should behave with the Afghan people. While recognizing reaching agreement on an update will not be easy, there are other cases to draw on where UNSC sanctions have been linked to political conditions: e.g. al-Shabaab and sexual and gender-based violence as a listing criteria across regimes.

Finally, they emphasize that in this process of the Council deliberating on updates, local Afghan expertise is critical for devising options around objectives and conditions for the 1988 sanctions.