Tue 02 May 2023:
UN chief Antonio Guterres held a second day of talks with world powers Tuesday on how to deal with Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders amid warnings from the Kabul administration that the meeting could be “counter-productive”.
The talks in Doha were arranged by Guterres after the Taliban government banned Afghan women from working for the United Nations, prompting the world body to put its huge relief operations in Afghanistan under review.
The talks involve envoys from the United States, Russia, China and 20 other countries and organisations, including major European donors and neighbours such as Pakistan, but exclude the Taliban government.
“Any meeting without the participation of IEA (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) representatives — the main party to the issue — is unproductive and even sometimes counter-productive,” said the head of the Taliban political office in Doha, Suhail Shaheen.
“How can a decision taken at such meetings be acceptable or implemented while we are not part of the process? It is discriminatory and unjustified,” he said.
Meanwhile, Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi will lead a delegation to Islamabad at the end of the week for talks with Pakistani and Chinese officials, the ministry said Tuesday.
Muttaqi, who is subject to a UN travel ban, has previously been given exemptions to travel to the neighbouring country for talks.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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