Global Courant 2023-05-02 07:10:31
The Taliban’s interim foreign minister is given permission by the UN to travel for meetings with counterparts in Pakistan.
A United Nations Security Council committee has agreed to allow the Taliban’s interim foreign minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi to travel to Pakistan from Afghanistan to meet with Pakistani and Chinese counterparts, news reports said.
The Reuters news agency reported on Monday that the Pakistani UN mission has applied for an exemption for Muttaqi to travel between May 6 and 9 “to meet with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China”.
Muttaqi has long been subject to a travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo under UN Security Council sanctions. The UN Security Council committee last month agreed to allow Muttaqi to travel to Uzbekistan for a meeting of the foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighbors to discuss pressing peace, security and stability issues.
Afghan TOLOnews outlet said earlier on Monday that media in Pakistan reported on the upcoming visit and that Muttaqi would meet with Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. The Afghan foreign ministry had not yet commented on the reported trip, according to TOLOnews.
Pakistani media reported that the acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, will visit Pakistan for four days this Friday. The report said Muttaqi will meet with Pakistani FM Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment.#TOLOnews pic.twitter.com/A30DGCssf7— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) May 1, 2023
News of the Taliban official’s trip comes as representatives from nearly two dozen countries and international institutions met in Qatar on Monday with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for talks on Afghanistan, with a particular focus on the plight of women and girls under Taliban rule.
Taliban authorities were not invited to attend the two-day closed-door meeting in Doha, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The meeting aims to “achieve a common understanding within the international community on how to deal with the Taliban,” Dujarric said, noting that recognition of Taliban rule “is not up for debate”. Key topics of conversation include women’s and girls’ rights, including governance, counter-terrorism and drug trafficking, he said.
Since taking power in August 2021, Taliban authorities have imposed rules that the UN has labeled “gender-based apartheid”.
“Any meeting on Afghanistan without the participation of the Afghan government is ineffective and counterproductive,” Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesman for the Taliban foreign ministry, told Al Jazeera.
Women are excluded from almost all high schools and universities, and are not allowed to work in most government jobs. Last month, Taliban authorities extended the ban to include cooperation with UN agencies.
The Taliban government says the ban is an “internal matter” that should not affect foreign transactions.
But in response, the UN has ordered a review of its critical aid operation in Afghanistan, where many of its 38 million population depend on food aid. The review will be completed on Friday. The UN has said it faces a “terrible choice” to continue aid efforts in Afghanistan.
Guterres said on social media before leaving for Doha that “undoing all measures that restrict women’s right to work is the key to reaching the millions of people in Afghanistan in need of humanitarian assistance”.
Although he was not invited to the talks, the head of the Taliban’s representative office in Doha, Sohail Shaheen, said he had met delegation members from the United Kingdom and China. He said the UN meeting and “the importance of engagement” were among the topics raised.
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