Human rights and the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where hunger threatens millions, was in focus at talks opened Sunday in Oslo between the Taliban, the West and members of Afghan civil society.
In their first visit to Europe since returning to power in August, the Taliban will meet Norwegian officials as well as representatives of the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy and the European Union.
The Taliban delegation is being led by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.
On the agenda is “the formation of a representative political system, responses to the urgent humanitarian and economic crises, security and counter-terrorism concerns, and human rights, especially education for girls and women”, a US State Department official said.
The group was toppled in 2001 but swiftly stormed back to power in August as international troops began their final withdrawal.
The Taliban hope the talks will help “transform the atmosphere of war…into a peaceful situation”, government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP on Saturday.
No country has yet recognised the Taliban government, and Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt stressed that the talks would “not represent a legitimisation or recognition of the Taliban”.
“But we must talk to the de facto authorities in the country. We cannot allow the political situation to lead to an even worse humanitarian disaster,” Huitfeldt said.
The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated drastically since August.
International aid, which financed around 80 per cent of the Afghan budget, came to a sudden halt and the United States has frozen $9.5 billion in assets in the Afghan central bank.
Unemployment has skyrocketed and civil servants’ salaries have not been paid for months in the country, already ravaged by several severe droughts.
Hunger now threatens 23 million Afghans, or 55pc of the population, according to the United Nations, which says it needs $4.4bn from donor countries this year to address the humanitarian crisis.
“It would be a mistake to submit the people of Afghanistan to a collective punishment just because the de facto authorities are not behaving properly”, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated Friday.
A former UN representative to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, told AFP: “We can’t keep distributing aid circumventing the Taliban.”
“If you want to be efficient, you have to involve the government in one way or another.”—AFP
