Montreal: Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau kept the door open for sanctions on the Taliban while noting the Islamist group now controlling Afghanistan remains a “terrorist entity”.
“Canada already recognizes, and has for long, that the Taliban are terrorists, and harbour terrorists. That’s why they’re on the terrorist list. So, yes, we can talk about sanctions,” Trudeau was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
Leaders of the G7 group of wealthy nations — Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — will meet virtually on the Afghanistan issue on Tuesday.
According to Trudeau, he was “looking forward to” a conversation “shortly with my fellow G7 leaders as we look at what more we can do.”
The current holder of the rotating presidency of G7, Britain has said that the relief of existing sanctions “will depend on the behaviour of the Taliban.”
The Taliban captured Afghanistan in mid-August, almost 20 years after its first regime was toppled by the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
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