By Banafsha Binesh in TOLOnews Online, April 12, 2023 at 10:52 PM
The US special envoy for Afghanistan, Thomas West, is traveling to the UAE, Qatar and Turkey to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.
In Doha, West will meet with Qatari colleagues, Afghan civil society leaders, and partner missions, according to a statement of the US Department of State.
The statement said that West will also meet with his UAE counterpart, and Afghan business and thought leaders in the UAE.
“As we had a meeting with Mr. West last time, we are planning to have a meeting with him again to negotiate with him on behalf of the traders. We have conveyed the problems to him. It is clear for him,” said Haji Obaidullah Sader Khail, head of the Afghan Business Council in the UAE.
The US State Department further said that West will hold consultations with Afghan political leaders, journalists, humanitarian professionals and human rights activists in Istanbul.
“SRA West is conducting outreach in the region to secure input as the international community seeks solutions to Afghanistan’s compounding challenges, made worse by the Taliban’s recent decisions to limit women’s participation in humanitarian operations and ban them from their vital work for the UN,” the statement said.
“(Either) the president should be changed in one and half years in the US or there will be a general change in Afghanistan, so that the US stance regarding Afghanistan will change then. Otherwise, these visits are only diplomatic and administrative,” said Torek Farhadi, a political analyst.
This comes as some political analysts said that the meetings of the US special envoy have not been significantly effective.
“This type of visit has two goals. On the one hand, it is aimed to promote the general views of the US around the world to show that Mr. Thomas West is doing his job as the representative of the US,” said Noorullah Raghi, a former diplomat.
West’s visit come after the Islamic Emirate’s recent decision to ban all Afghan female UN staff from going to work, which was followed by strong reactions at a national and international level.
https://tolonews.com/index.php/afghanistan-182939
