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The UN talks about the crisis in Afghanistan without the Taliban

2023-05-01 15:25:48, Kosova & Bota CNA

Afghanistan's Taliban authorities will be absent from talks led by the United Nations (UN), which will begin on Monday. These negotiations will discuss how to deal with the country's rulers in crisis and press for the lifting of restrictions on women working and girls attending schools.

Envoys from the United States, China and Russia, as well as major aid donors from Europe and neighbors such as Pakistan, are among representatives from about 25 countries and groups invited to the two-day negotiations by the UN Secretary-General. , Antonio Guterres.

However, the Taliban government has not been invited to the Doha talks and the issue of recognizing the administration has been raised as a concern ahead of this meeting.

A small group of Afghan women staged a weekend protest march in Kabul to oppose any move to recognize the rulers who returned to power in August 2021.

In an open letter to participants in the Doha meeting, published on April 30, a coalition of Afghan women's groups said they were "outraged" that any country would consider forming ties with the government that the United Nations they call "de facto authority".

The UN and the US have insisted that government recognition is not in the plans for this meeting.

Rights groups' fears have been fueled by UN deputy secretary-general Amina Mohammed, who said last month that the Doha meeting could bring "small steps" leading to a "recognition in principle" of the Taliban government.

The UN said the comments had been misinterpreted. No country has established formal ties with the Afghan administration, and UN membership can only be decided by the UN General Assembly.

Ahead of Guterres' arrival in Doha, his office said the meeting "aims to reach a common understanding within the international community on how to deal with the Taliban" on women's and girls' rights, comprehensive governance against terrorism and human trafficking. drugs.

The UN dilemma

"Any kind of recognition of the Taliban is completely off the table," US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said last week.

Despite not being invited to the meeting, the head of the Taliban's representative office in Doha, Sohail Shaheen, said he met with members of the British and Chinese delegations.

He said that the UN talks were among the topics discussed.

Since toppling a foreign-backed government in 2021, Taliban authorities have imposed a harsh version of sharia law, which the United Nations has labeled "gender-based apartheid".

Although divided on many issues, UN Security Council powers came together on Thursday to condemn restrictions on Afghan women and girls and called on all countries to seek "an urgent change" in policies. in Afghanistan.

However, diplomats and observers say the Doha meeting highlights the problem facing the international community over Afghanistan, which the UN considers its biggest humanitarian crisis as millions of people depend on food aid.

Amina Mohammed said it was "clear" that the Taliban authorities want recognition. Formal UN ties would help the government recover billions of dollars seized abroad after the Taliban took power.

But diplomats from several countries involved in the Doha talks said this would not be possible until there is a change in Afghan policies on women's rights. The Afghan Foreign Ministry said, after last week's vote at the UN, that "diversity should be respected and not politicized"./ REL