The
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan began in October 2001 following a series of ultimatums to the Taliban to hand over
Osama bin Laden whom the United States asserted was responsible for the
11 September 2001 attacks. The Taliban regime appeared to overrule a decision by an emergency meeting of Afghan clerics to ask bin Laden to leave voluntarily, and declared that it would be an insult to Islam to hand him over without any actual evidence of guilt. Anti-Taliban forces retook the country, and a new government was set up under
Hamid Karzai in December 2001. On 15 January 2002, the Security Council lifted sanctions from
Ariana Afghan Airlines as it was no longer operated by the Taliban in
Resolution 1388. The following day, in
Resolution 1390, they cancelled all further flight restrictions, but reiterated the financial and military sanctions against Taliban associated individuals and gave all countries 90 days to report on the measures they were taking. On 20 December 2002, the Security Council, under
Resolution 1452, changed the enforcement regime so that individual countries could administer their own exemptions to the financial sanctions. Until then, all financial transactions involving someone who had been designated by the committee as an associate of the Taliban had to be authorized on a case-by-case basis on the grounds of humanitarian need. This resolution allowed countries to free up funds for such individuals for the purposes of paying for food, rent, medicine, tax, legal fees, and so forth. In the United Kingdom the
sanctions regime is severe enough that it has been found to apply to the wife of a listed individual who was prevented from withdrawing enough money to take her children to the swimming pool. The following month in
Resolution 1455 the Security Council reinstated the Monitoring Group and reminded all countries that they should be implementing the sanctions and writing reports. On 20 January 2003 the Security Council convened a high-level meeting of ministers to discuss the subject of combatting terrorism.
Resolution 1456 itself was simply the adoption of a declaration made by the ministers, urging intensified efforts from the
Counter-Terrorism Committee. On 30 January 2004 the Security Council passed
Resolution 1526 (2004) to strengthen the regime and demanded that: • All countries must immediately freeze all economic resources that could directly or indirectly benefit anyone on the list • All countries must prevent entry and transit through their territories of people on the list • All countries who had not yet done so had to submit their reports by 31 March On 29 July 2005 the Security Council passed
Resolution 1617 (2005) to formalize the procedure for putting individuals onto the Consolidated List. On 8 August 2006 the Security Council passed
Resolution 1699 (2006) welcoming the role of
Interpol in applying the sanctions and requesting the Secretary-General to increase cooperation. ==Listing and de-listing procedures==