ISLAMABAD — The United Nations says it would like to see Taliban representatives attend a two-day international conference on Afghanistan that will take place in Qatar next week.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will host the meeting starting February 18, with member states and regional organizations’ special envoys on Afghanistan in attendance.
Stephane Dujarric, the Secretary-General’s spokesman, said that the objective of the meeting is to discuss the international engagement approach with the Taliban since they reclaimed power.
“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.
The event in Doha, the capital of the tiny Gulf state, will mark the second such U.N.-organized gathering in less than a year. The Taliban were not invited to the session convened in May 2023.
A key agenda item for the conference is the potential appointment of a U.N. envoy who would coordinate increased international engagement with Taliban leaders in Kabul. The appointment, recommended in an independent U.N. assessment, is backed by the United States and its European allies.
China and Russia abstained from a December 2023 U.N. Security Council vote on a resolution authorizing the secretary-general to appoint a special envoy for Afghanistan.
Earlier this month, the Taliban confirmed that they had received an invitation to the upcoming conference and were considering “meaningful participation” in it. However, the de facto Afghan authorities remain opposed to the appointment of a U.N. envoy to the country.
“In the presence of UNAMA [the U.N. Assistance Mission for Afghanistan], there is no need for the appointment of a new envoy,” Taliban’s deputy chief minister, Abdul Kabir, told Tomas Niklasson, the special envoy of the European Union for Afghanistan, on February 7.
U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tom West, and Rina Amiri, the special envoy for Afghan women, girls, and human rights, will attend Sunday’s meeting in Doha.
“The United States strongly supports the resolution’s call for a U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan and urges the secretary-general to appoint a special envoy as soon as possible,” State Department spokesman Mathew Miller told reporters on Tuesday.
Miller added, “A special envoy will be well-positioned to coordinate international engagement in Afghanistan to achieve the objectives laid out in this resolution.
Washington has repeatedly clarified that it is not part of any efforts to “normalize” or recognize the Taliban government.
“If they want to be seen as legitimate rulers, they need to meet all the commitments that they said they would meet and make. And they haven’t done that,” John Kirby, the presidential national security spokesman, told a White House news conference Monday.
The United Nations has ignored the Taliban’s calls to allow them to represent Afghanistan at the world body and no country has formally declared its recognition of the new Kabul government.
The de facto Afghan authorities have enforced their strict interpretation of Islamic law since recapturing power in August 2021, when U.S.-led international forces withdrew from the country after 20 years of involvement in the war with then-Taliban insurgents.
The Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on women’s rights to work and receive an education beyond the sixth grade. They have largely ignored U.N.-led international calls to remove the curbs and run the country through an inclusive Afghan government.
The Taliban defend their governance as aligned with Afghan culture and Islamic law.
U.N. and global rights groups have constantly accused the Taliban of committing human rights violations through their discriminatory policies, with some decrying them as “gender apartheid.”
Washington and the U.N. have imposed sanctions on the de facto rulers, citing concerns related to terrorism.
VOA UN correspondent Margeret Besheer and Akmal Dawi contributed to the story.
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