US to impose unilateral restrictions on imports of Afghan heritage materials
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As if what the US has done and is doing to Afghanistan is not enough for its State Department to announce today that it is imposing new restrictions on trade.
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US occupation soldiers (US Army)
The US Department of State stated on Tuesday that it is imposing unilateral import restrictions on trade dealings involving archaeological and other items from Afghanistan.
“As part of its inter-agency coordination responsibilities for the preservation of cultural heritage, the US Department of State announces the imposition of unilateral restrictions on the importation of certain categories of Afghan archaeological and ethnological material into the United States,” the statement read.
The import limitations were announced by US Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of the Treasury earlier on Tuesday, and they went into force immediately, according to the statement.
The statement also claimed that by doing so, the US authorities have erected more hurdles to what they called illegally trafficked goods entering the country's art market, stressing “the extra safeguards will also help to avoid the plunder of Afghanistan's cultural treasures."
Ironically, the US was directly or indirectly behind the theft of Afghanistan's cultural treasures during its 20 years of occupation of Afghanistan, leaving the country's history and its people in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises in history.
![In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had "engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)](https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2024/12/21/b4a69f2e-8682-43e4-9d37-49482b304ab3/3.png?v=2&format=webp "In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had \"engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)")
