MOSCOW. Feb 12 (Interfax-AVN) - Moscow is prepared to consider the exclusion of certain persons and entities from the anti-Taliban sanctions "black list", but urges caution while doing so.
This issue was discussed a few days ago during Russian-American consultations in Moscow, a Russian Foreign Ministry source told Interfax. The U.S delegation leader, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Patrick Moon in charge of Afghan affairs in the U.S. Department of State, met in Moscow with deputy foreign ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Alexei Borodavkin, and North America Department Director Igor Neverov.
The American side proposed excluding some individuals and entities from the "black list instituted in line with the UN Security Council's Resolution 1267, the source said.
"We are not against the idea of updating the sanctions lists if this is done with caution," he said.
"Rigorous criteria must be observed while doing so," the diplomat said. "Guarantees must be in place so that the individuals excluded from the list do not restart terrorist activities. So this problem should be approached with profound caution," he said.
Resolution 1267 was passed in 1999 and it instituted a committee which monitors the implementation of sanctions against individuals and organizations indirectly or directly cooperating with the Taliban or Al Qaeda terror organizations. The committee has drawn up the relevant "black list."