Afghan airline welcomes UN comments
BBC News

The Afghan national airline, Ariana Airlines, has welcomed comments by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, that it should be exempted from certain sanctions to allow it to deal with maintenance problems.

An airline spokesman, Maulvi Hamid Ullah, told the Associated Press that the condition of its aircraft was very bad because the company was no longer allowed to have planes maintained in Jordan.

In a report yesterday, Mr Annan recommended immediate implementation of a simple technical solution to cut through the red tape of the UN sanctions committee and allow exemptions.

He said the committee should consider allowing the airline to use some of its frozen assets for maintenance and crew training.

United Nations sanctions against the Taleban in Afghanistan were strengthened in January as part of efforts to force the regime to handover the exiled Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden, who is wanted in connection with the bombings of US embassies in Africa.