The United Nations is reviewing its sanctions roster targeting Taliban and al Qaeda figures following a call by last week's peace conference in Afghanistan, Reuters quoted the top U.N. envoy as saying on Saturday. U.N. Security Council Resolution 1267 freezes the assets and limits the movements of senior Afghan-based militants, but recent efforts to include some Taliban in diplomacy have raised questions in Kabul about the blacklist's appropriateness. Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative to Afghanistan, said a Security Council team had come in to discuss "updating" the 137-name list. It was expected to submit recommendations to the council by month's end, he said. "Updating means taking on or taking off based on additional new information. Some of the people in the list may not be alive any more. The list may be completely outdated ... Now it's the right time," de Mistura told reporters. "We are not going, of course, to prejudge the conclusions of this group ... but the fact that this is taking place so soon after the peace jirga (conference) and so soon after the appeal to look seriously at this list is a sign of proactivity." -- SPA
