By Fidel Rahmati in Khaama Press online, July 6, 2023
Scott Smith, Head of the United Nations political office in Afghanistan, announced during a meeting at ARG that a new Doha summit is being prepared and that, this time, representatives of the current regime will be invited to attend.
He pointed out that the meeting will be scheduled before the end of this year.
Smith assured the de factor authorities that the international community would continue to provide humanitarian aid, according to a statement released here by Arg.
A closed-door summit on Afghanistan talks was held in Qatar earlier in May without formally recognizing the Taliban-run government.
Activists were concerned that the meeting in Doha might result in a recognition agreement between the international community and the Taliban. Afghan women are still largely excluded from society due to the Taliban’s repressive policies.
Representatives from about 25 countries and organizations, including ambassadors from the US, China, and Russia and significant European aid donors and important neighbouring countries like Pakistan were invited to the two days of private negotiations that UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres began on May 1-2 in the capital of Qatar.
Meanwhile, the Taliban representative condemned that they were not invited to the meeting. “Any meeting about Afghanistan without the participation of the Afghan government is ineffective and counterproductive,” Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the Taliban foreign ministry spokesperson, told Al Jazeera.
In the last Afghanistan talks in Doha, the UN chief said that the Taliban rulers would not be invited to the meeting to discuss the dire humanitarian situation in the country and its international isolation. Meanwhile, the Taliban recognition was not on the agenda.
Still, the UN officials in Kabul have not commented, and the agenda of the upcoming meeting has yet to be disclosed.
However, the Taliban insist on their government’s recognition as legitimate. At the same time, the activists and human rights advocates say that the suppressive policies of the current regime concerning human rights and women’s rights, including education and working with UN aid agencies, must be lifted and should be respected.
https://www.khaama.com/un-will-hold-another-crucial-afghanistan-talks-in-doha-taliban-representatives-will-also-be-invited/
