Global Policy Forum

Russia denied on Monday it was campaigning to impose sanctions on Pakistan for allegedly providing military assistance to Afghanistan's Taliban rulers in violation of Security Council resolutions. But Russian envoy Gennady Gatilov said his UN delegation had passed some information to a Security Council sanctions committee about violations, although he would not say if the material dealt with Pakistan.

"We are not going to initiate anything of that sort," he said in response to a New York Times report that Russia planned to lead a drive to persuade the 15-nation council to punish Pakistan. "It is the wrong information."

The Security Council has twice imposed sanctions on the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban to pressure its leaders to hand over Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, who is accused by the United States of masterminding the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

In December 2000 the council, at the behest of Russia and the United States, placed an arms and military assistance embargo on the Taliban but not on its United Front opponents, who control a swatch of land in northern Afghanistan.

U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham told reporters, "I've been told that they (Russia) have been looking into" sanctions on Pakistan. But he said it was premature to say a decision had been made on how to proceed in the Security Council.

British Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock, this month's council president, also said the reports were premature. "My impression is that guns were being jumped with that article," he said.

Pakistan has been accused in the past by UN officials of giving military assistance to the Taliban while the former Soviet Republics neighboring Afghanistan are said to be supplying the United Front, led by Gen. Ahmad Masood. Pakistani UN envoy Masood Khalid said there were no grounds for sanctions against his country, one of three nations that recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan's government. "Pakistan has very clearly said they are complying with the sanctions," he said. "They (Moscow) are saying they have the evidence. We haven't seen any of the evidence so far."

The council is scheduled twice this month to review various aspects of the sanctions. The first meeting is on Thursday. A drive to impose sanctions on Pakistan could put the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush in a quandary. Pakistan, which Washington considers an ally, has serious economic and political problems and is playing host to more than a million refugees who have fled drought and a civil war raging in parts of the country between the Taliban and their United Front opponents. But Washington has also led the drive to isolate the Taliban for harboring bin Laden.