The United Nations has withdrawn all foreign staff from Afghanistan amid concern over potentially violent protests against tough new sanctions likely to be announced this week, officials said on Tuesday.
The last six senior UN officials in the country were seen leaving the rocket-scarred airport in Kabul early Tuesday on their way to neighbouring Pakistan.

Their departure comes in expectation that the Security Council will adopt a resolution slapping broader sanctions against the ruling Taliban militia for its alleged support of terrorism.
Aviation and financial curbs imposed in November last year triggered a wave of violent protests in which UN offices around the country were ransacked.

“We are just leaving as a precautionary measure and hope to come back as soon as possible. The sanctions might be announced tonight,” said one top official, asking not to be named.

She said, “We have not felt threatened,” adding that we need to come back and we need to go to work.
Spokeswoman for the UN coordinator's office Stephanie Bunker told AFP the UN had received fresh assurances from Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel that UN operations would be protected.

But Mutawakel has said that spontaneous protests could still erupt against the sanctions, which have been condemned by Taliban officials as likely to cause a humanitarian catastrophe. Bureau Report