The State Department has banned the import of certain Afghan cultural artifacts in an effort to preserve Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said in a statement on Tuesday that the move was aimed at preserving the cultural heritage of the Afghan people.
The statement said that given the current situation in Afghanistan, the US government is immediately implementing these import restrictions unilaterally.
The sanctions were imposed yesterday in coordination with the US Customs Service and the Department of Border Protection.
The State Department said in a statement that the main purpose of the sanctions was to curb the smuggling of Afghan cultural artifacts, their transfer to US markets, looting and the sale and purchase of such cultural artifacts by terrorist and criminal groups.
After the fall of Dr. Najibullah’s government in the 1990s and the return of the Mujahideen, the National Museum of Afghanistan was looted and many of Afghanistan’s cultural and historical artifacts were sold and auctioned. In addition, over the past two decades, a number of historical and cultural sites in Afghanistan have been illegally excavated.
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