At Afghanistan Meeting, UN’s Guterres Pledges Work To Appoint Envoy

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
February 19, 2024

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on February 19 told a press conference at a two-day UN-sponsored meeting of more than two dozen nations but not including Taliban representatives in the Qatari capital to discuss the “evolving situation” in Afghanistan that he is starting consultations toward appointing a UN envoy to coordinate engagement between Kabul and the international community.

The Doha gathering is also aimed at discussing possible international engagement since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in mid-2021.

Guterres held closed-door sessions with the representatives of several nations and organizations on the meeting’s first day.

Mahbouba Seraj, a civil-society and women’s rights representative who is in Doha along with a number of other Afghan participants not affiliated with the Taliban-led government, told Radio Azadi that priority topics on day two would include the plight of women and girls under the Taliban.

She expressed hope that hers and other women’s voices will “finally be heard, that this issue will be followed up on, and indeed someone” will take up the cause of Afghan women, who are routinely discriminated against and isolated under the hard-line fundamentalist Taliban.

Girls above the sixth grade have been barred from attending school, universities are closed to women, and work in the nongovernmental sector and among most government bodies has been banned for women, in addition to other restrictions.

The Taliban leadership declined the invitation from the UN Department of Political Affairs and Peacebuilding (DPPA) to attend the gathering.

Guterres said the Taliban set unacceptable conditions for attending the meeting, including the barring of Afghan civil society members and de facto recognition of the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate rulers.

“I received a letter with a set of conditions to be present in this meeting that were not acceptable,” Guterres told a news conference. “These conditions denied us the right to talk to other representatives of Afghan society and demanded a treatment that, to a large extent, would be similar to recognition.”

Russia also said via its embassy in Afghanistan that it wouldn’t send a delegation to the Qatari meeting.

Moscow said it was acting “at the request of the Afghan authorities” and would not join “so-called Afghan civil activists, whose selection, by the way, was conducted nontransparently behind Kabul’s back.”

Organizers said participants from 25 nations and groups would include those from “Afghanistan, the wider region, and beyond.”

“Other regional organizations working actively on Afghanistan such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the European Union, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization” were also expected to be there.

The Taliban-led government remains overwhelmingly unrecognized internationally since taking over following the withdrawal in mid-2021 of the U.S.-led international coalition that spent two decades in Afghanistan after the events of 9/11.

The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry on February 17 said that due to the nonacceptance of its demands, it did not consider participation in the Doha meeting to be fruitful, expressing anger over the planned appearance of non-Taliban Afghan representatives at the sessions. The Taliban has long had a representative office in Qatar.

The DPPA said the current session would “take place in the context of Security Council resolution 2721 (2023), which encourages member states to consider increasing international engagement in the country, with the objective of a ‘clear end state of an Afghanistan at peace with itself and its neighbors, fully reintegrated into the international community, and meeting international obligations.’”

The gathering is the second such meeting organized by the UN in the past year following a session in May 2023.

With reporting by AP

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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International Envoys Discuss Afghan Engagement In Doha; Taliban Rejects Invite

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
February 18, 2024

Special envoys from more than two dozen countries gathered in the Qatari capital to discuss the “evolving situation” in Afghanistan and possible international engagement since the Taliban’s takeover of the country in mid-2021, organizers of the UN-led event said on February 18.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held closed-door sessions with the representatives of several nations and organizations on the first day of the two-day meetings in Doha sponsored by the UN’s Department of Political Affairs and Peacebuilding (DPPA). No details of the meetings were immediately released.

Organizers said participants from 25 countries and groups would include those from “Afghanistan, the wider region, and beyond.”

“Other regional organizations working actively on Afghanistan such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the European Union, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization” would be there, a statement said.

The DPPA said the “de facto authorities” from Afghanistan had been invited, but the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry on February 17 said that due to the nonacceptance of its demands, it did not consider participation in the Doha meeting to be fruitful, expressing anger over the planned appearance of non-Taliban Afghan representatives at the sessions.

The Taliban has long had a representative office in Qatar.

Reports in the Afghan media said Lotfollah Najafizadeh on behalf of civil activists and Mahbubeh Siraj, Mitra Mehran, and Shah Gul Rezaee representing Afghan women’s rights groups were participating.

The DPPA said the current session would “take place in the context of Security Council resolution 2721 (2023), which encourages member states to consider increasing international engagement in the country, with the objective of a ‘clear end state of an Afghanistan at peace with itself and its neighbors, fully reintegrated into the international community, and meeting international obligations.’”

In an interview with RFE/RL, Nicholas Kay, a former British diplomat and NATO representative in Afghanistan, said he is not optimistic about the situation in the war-torn country as its Taliban leaders continue to restrict rights and freedoms, especially for females.

Kay, NATO’s senior civilian representative in Afghanistan in 2018-20, said he sees little potential for change in Afghanistan in the near future with the Taliban holding a tight grip on society.

“I think it’s tough days ahead for Afghans, unfortunately,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi ahead the Doha sessions.

“I wish I could be more optimistic,” he said.

The gathering is the second such meeting organized by the UN in the past year following a session in May 2023.

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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Afghan Province Orders Officials Not To Photograph Living Things

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AFP: Authorities in the Afghan province of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, ordered officials on February 18 not to take pictures or videos of “living things.” In a letter addressed to civilian and military officials, the provincial department of the interior directed them “to refrain from taking pictures of living things in your formal and informal gatherings, because it causes more harm than good.” Click here to read more (external link).

5.0-Magnitude Earthquake Jolts Northern Afghanistan

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dba: A relatively strong earthquake hit Afghanistan’s northern province of Balkh on February 18. The 5.0-magnitude quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers, according to the United States Geological Survey. Haji Zaid, the Balkh governor’s spokesman, said on social media that there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. Click here to read more (external link).

Child Labor Under Taliban Rule: Exhausted Bodies, Limited Choices, and Meager Incomes

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Child Laborers (file photo)

8am: For the elite and the middle class in Afghan society, the rule of the Taliban and the loss of rights and freedoms may be the most significant issue in Afghanistan at present, but for the poorer segment of society, bread is a more pressing concern. Perhaps the hungry do not contemplate freedom. Poverty has always been synonymous with Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).

Khaama Press Editor in Chief Detained by Authorities in Kabul

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Nekmal

Khaama: Mansoor Nekmal, the Editor in Chief of Khaama Press, has been detained following a summons to the [Taliban] Ministry of Vice and Virtue, sparking urgent calls for his release and a rallying cry for press freedom in Afghanistan..The detention came after a recent report published by Khaama Press on the hijab issue, which led to Mr. Nekmal being summoned by the ministry. Mr. Nekmal attended a meeting at the ministry on Saturday, February 17, from where his whereabouts became unknown, leading to concerns over his arrest. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Refuse to Attend UN Conference on Afghanistan

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Sarah Zaman
VOA News
February 17, 2024

ISLAMABAD — The Afghan Taliban have decided not to participate in a U.N.-sponsored conference on Afghanistan in Qatar’s capital Doha.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will host a two-day gathering beginning Sunday in Doha, where member states and special envoys to Afghanistan will discuss engagement with the Taliban.

In a statement issued Saturday evening on social media platform X, the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said a delegation would attend only if the Taliban were accepted as the single official representative of Afghanistan.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has clarified to the U.N. that if the Islamic Emirate is to participate as the sole official representative of Afghanistan … then participation would be beneficial. Else, ineffectual participation by the Emirate due to non-progress in this area was deemed unbeneficial,” the ministry said.

The Taliban use the term Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, or IEA, for their administration.

The United Nations has invited Afghan civil society members, as well as groups opposed to the Taliban, to meet with special envoys for Afghanistan.

“There will be a meeting with the Taliban, but there will also be a meeting of envoys with civil society, including women’s groups, because it’s important that the voices of Afghan women be heard very loud and clear,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general said in the daily press briefing Friday. His remarks came prior to the Taliban’s refusal to attend.

Expressing opposition to the inclusion of non-Taliban voices, the foreign ministry said it was possible to achieve progress in talks “if the U.N. takes stock of current realities, rebuffs influence and pressure of a few parties.”

The statement released just hours before the conference begins put an end to days of confusion about whether the de facto rulers of Afghanistan would attend.

Earlier, Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s office had quoted him telling the Russian Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov that de facto rulers had “shared our views on the possible participation.”

“If there is an opportunity for high-level meaningful consultations between IEA and [the] U.N. regarding all issues of Afghanistan, and the IEA is able to duly fulfill its responsibility as the representative of Afghanistan, then the Doha meeting would be a good opportunity.”

Doha conference

The conference in Doha is the second U.N.-led international dialogue on Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021 after the end of a 20-year war with the U.S. and its allies.

While the Taliban were not invited to the first global assembly in May 2023, the U.N. was seeking the group’s presence this time.

“An important aspect of the event is the intention to provide the opportunity for the special envoys to meet collectively with Afghan stakeholders, including representatives of the de facto authorities and Afghan civil society participants, including women,” Dujarric told VOA earlier this week.

Along with discussing how the international community should engage with the Taliban — and addressing the plight of Afghan women and girls who are barred from studying and working — the conference is expected to discuss the appointment of a special U.N. envoy for Afghanistan.

The Taliban oppose such an appointment.

Recognition issue

Despite controlling Afghanistan for more than two years, the Taliban have failed in their bid for official recognition. The U.N. has refused to grant the group Afghanistan’s seat at the world body.

While many countries have embassies in Kabul and foreign officials engage regularly with Taliban representatives, only China has accepted an Afghan ambassador and sent its envoy to Kabul. However, Beijing insists it has not officially recognized the Taliban government.

The international community demands that to be recognized, the Taliban must form an inclusive government and lift the ban on women’s education and work.

The Taliban foreign ministry statement issued Saturday rejected efforts to push the group to soften its stance.

“If repetition of failed 20-year experimentation is discarded, and a realistic and pragmatic approach is adopted over unilateral impositions, accusations and pressurization, then progress can also be made in bilateral relations with other parties.”

VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this story.