The United Nations Security Council has removed five Taliban members from its sanctions blacklist, a move sought by the Afghan Government to promote reconciliation. Those taken off the list include former UN ambassador Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad Awrang, Abdul Salam Zaeef, Abdul Satar Paktin, and two members described as dead. The decision leaves 132 Taliban members on the list and subject to an asset freeze and travel ban. Five names were taken off the list in January this year. Earlier this month, the top UN envoy in Afghanistan Staffan De Mistura said Afghan officials submitted 10 names which were forwarded to the council committee that monitors sanctions against al-Qaida and the Taliban and decides whether to take them off the blacklist. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been making peace overtures to the Taliban militants who ruled the country for five years before they were driven out in the U.S.-led invasion at the end of 2001. Last month, Afghan delegates for peace jirga called on the Government and its international partners to remove some people from the sanctions list to help promote reconciliation and a political solution to the nearly nine-year Afghan war.