Potential Deal In Afghanistan Complicated By Moscow's Intransigence Over Warlord

The Russian government is standing in the way of efforts to remove a top Afghan warlord from a U.N. sanctions list, reports the Wall Street Journal.

In September, the government in Kabul and Hezb-e Islami, an Islamist group led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, reached an agreement that was widely seen as a first step toward ending some of the fighting in Afghanistan.

As part of the deal, the Afghan government asked the U.N. in December to take Hekmatyar off its sanctions list. ...