Afghan president asks U.N. to add Taliban leader to sanctions list

Afghanistan's president asked the United Nations on Monday to add the Taliban's new leader to its sanctions list, in a further blow to efforts to revive the stalled peace process. Afghan forces have struggled to contain the Taliban insurgency, with two deadly suicide bombings claimed by the group at the NATO air base in Bagram and at a German consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif in just the past week. "We want the U.N. to add names of terrorists including Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah (Akhundzada) to its sanctions list," President Ashraf Ghani said in a statement after meeting with members of the U.N. sanctions committee in Kabul.