At UN meet, Taliban seek ‘delineating’ internal matters from foreign affairs

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – The Taliban-led Afghan interim administration Sunday called for “delineating” Afghanistan’s internal matters from foreign relations to achieve “advancements” in bilateral and multilateral engagements.

Besides, it put forward three key requirements before the international community to help the war-torn nation make progress as it battles poverty, broken economy, and weak healthcare.

These needs were key parts of a statement delivered by the Afghan interim administration’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid as the two-day UN-hosted meeting on Afghanistan opened in Qatari capital Doha.

The key areas include removing all restrictions and sanctions on Afghanistan’s banking sector, unfreezing central bank reserves of around $7 billion and providing alternative livelihood to the nation’s farmers as drug crop and processing has entirely been banned.

This is the third such UN meeting attended for the first time by the Taliban as the interim administration remains unrecognized by the international community since their return to power in August 2021.

Besides UN officials, over 20 envoys of various governments, including the US, Russia, and Pakistan, are attending the meeting.

Rosemary DiCarlo, under-secretary-general for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, is leading the UN delegation, according to an official transcript of the Taliban spokesman’s statement.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” Mujahid said, referring to the Taliban administration’s official name, “now represents a government that is the culmination of the Afghan people's decades-long struggles.”

“The political understanding between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and other nations is steadily improving,” Mujahid told the UN meeting participants.

To support his stance, Mujahid said Kazakhstan had removed the Taliban from its list of prohibited groups.

“It is anticipated that the Russian Federation will undertake a similar measure in the near future,” said Mujahid as Russian special envoy Zamir Kabulov heard the Taliban spokesman.

“Concurrently, the People's Republic of China has officially recognized the ambassador of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” said Mujahid, adding: “Numerous countries have accepted diplomats from the Afghan government, and we have active political representations.”

Referring to the Israeli war on Gaza, Mujahid said it was "the first genocide in history broadcasted live."

"This tragedy has severely undermined the credibility of countries and organizations that profess to uphold human rights.

"It is important to note that certain entities directly involved in this humanitarian atrocity lack the moral standing to lecture us on human rights," the Taliban spokesman told the meeting participants which included US special representative Thomas West.​​​​​​​