Following the conclusion of the two-day meeting of the United Nations Security Council Taliban sanctions committee in Doha, Qatar, a foreign news agency reported that the Taliban had rejected the committee’s demand to lift the ban on women working and attending school.
In response to the demand made at the Doha meeting, Taliban leaders declared, “The demand is interference in Afghanistan’s internal social affairs.”
Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, questioned how the decision of the meeting could be approved or carried out without the participation of the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan.
The UN committee conference ended without the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan receiving official recognition.
To this meeting, which included attendees from more than 20 nations and international organisations, the Taliban government was not invited.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres referred to the recently finished meeting as “important” and indicated that “another meeting will be held in the future.”
When a journalist questioned Guterres, who presided over the aforementioned conference, about the potential of ever having a direct meeting with the Taliban, he responded, “If the time is right, I will not deny the possibility.”
China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Britain, the United States, Uzbekistan, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation were among the nations that participated in the meeting.
A day earlier, a foreign media outlet stated that the committee had consented to enable the meeting between Pakistani and Chinese diplomats and Amir Khan Muttaqi, the foreign minister for the Taliban government.
Next Monday, Muttaqi will fly from Afghanistan to Pakistan’s neighbour for the conference.
Due to sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, the Afghan minister has been subject to a travel ban, an arms embargo, and an asset freeze for a long time.
According to a letter from Pakistan’s UN mission to the 15-member Security Council Taliban sanctions committee, Muttaqi has to travel between May 6 and May 9 “for a meeting with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China.”
