IEA says UNSC report on Afghanistan is ‘biased and far from reality’

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has said the UN Security Council report by the sanctions monitoring team on the situation in the country is “biased and far from reality”.

The UNSC’s sanctions monitoring team said in its latest report that the IEA’s link with terrorist groups, such as Al-Qaeda and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), remains strong and symbiotic.

“A range of terrorist groups have greater freedom of maneuver under the Taliban (IEA) de facto authorities. They are making good use of this, and the threat of terrorism is rising in both Afghanistan and the region,” the report read.

In response to this, the IEA said in a statement Sunday that they consider the continuation of UN Security Council sanctions and such reports “as full of prejudice and in conflict with the principles of independence and non-interference, and calls for an end to it.”

They also said claims that there are rifts within the IEA, that Afghanistan has become a safe haven for terrorists, that drug trafficking is carried out by IEA officials, that there is a monopoly of power and that government is not representative of ethnic groups is baseless and clearly hostile, and baseless “propaganda”.

The IEA said in their statement that rumors of a rift between their leaders was in “particular the continuation of the propaganda of the past 20 years.”

The IEA said it strongly rejects the claims it is allowing “opponents of neighboring and regional countries” to use Afghanistan soil against other countries.

In addition, the IEA said the cultivation, production and trafficking of drugs has dropped significantly and that recent media reports to this effect were testimony to this.

“The Islamic Emirate emphasizes that the publication of such biased and baseless reports by the Security Council does not help Afghanistan and international peace and security, rather, it increases worry among the people, it [casts] doubts about the independence and impartiality of the United Nations, as well as strictly damages its credibility and reputation,” the statement read.

“All decisions of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan are made in the light of Islamic Sharia guidelines, bilateral and multilateral commitments and national interests, and it continues to interact with the international community to address common concerns,” read the statement.