Graham, Waltz urge State Department to designate Taliban as terrorist organization

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) introduced resolutions Tuesday urging Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to designate the Afghan Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

The resolution introduced into both chambers of Congress calls for freezing the Government of Afghanistan’s assets in the U.S. and for the U.S. government to use its influence and authority to ensure other countries, international institutions and other organizations do not distribute funds held by those entities to the Afghan Taliban.

“This resolution is one of the most important things Congress can do regarding the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban,” Graham said. “Designating the Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization will make it harder for countries to provide them aid and recognition. We would be sending a strong signal that America does not do business with terrorist groups and their sympathizers. The Taliban are radical jihadists in every sense of the word and use terror as their tactic.”

The resolution also seeks to classify the take over of the Afghan government by the Taliban as a coup d’ etat.

“We must be clear-eyed about the threat we face in Afghanistan and that begins with recognizing the reality on the ground — the Taliban are terrorists,” Waltz said. “The Biden Administration has misled the American public by attempting to normalize the Taliban as a transitional government but the Taliban continue to engage in terrorist activity, harbor other terrorist groups, commit human rights atrocities, deny women their basic civil liberties, and overthrew a democratically elected government. If this Administration wants to regain any credibility by the disaster they’ve created in Afghanistan, they must take the step to officially designate the Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.”