US Special Representative Calls For National Political Dialogue in Afghanistan

China, which enjoys close relations with the Taliban, believes that the United States’ strategy in Afghanistan has failed.

The Chinese Special envoy also added, at the Moscow meeting, that the United States is the source of problems in Afghanistan.

At the Moscow meeting, representatives of Uzbekistan and Russia also demanded the release of Afghanistan’s frozen funds.

He also announced that Iran will soon hold an international meeting regarding Afghanistan. According to Qomi, the upcoming meeting will be at the foreign-ministerial level.

Addressing the participants of the Moscow meet, Qomi warned that time is running out, and if the world can’t manage the situation in Afghanistan, it will get worse.

Representatives of Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, India, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are present in this meeting.

The Taliban has not been invited to this meeting and Qomi did not comment on the presence of the Taliban in the upcoming meeting in Tehran too.

Kabulov stressed that Russia has urged the United States and its allies to release the frozen assets of Afghanistan too. According to him, the US, and other countries’ efforts to establish a trust fund or print new Afghani banknotes are superficial.

The Taliban have not been invited to attend the Moscow consultative meeting.

Representatives of China, Pakistan, Iran, India, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan are participating in this meeting.

Delegations from Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey have also been invited as guests to the Moscow meeting.

During the conversation with his Pakistani counterpart, the Iranian foreign minister also spoke about the cooperation between the two countries on issues relating to the affairs of Afghanistan.

Iran and Pakistan are the two neighbours of Afghanistan which host the largest number of Afghan immigrants. After the fall of the republic government in Afghanistan in 2021, thousands of Afghan citizens migrated to Pakistan and Iran.

However, Afghan immigrants have always complained about the ill-treatment by the police officials of the two countries. Recently, it had been reported that Iran forcibly deported thousands of Afghan immigrants.

In recent months, Pakistan has also increased their implementation of strict measures against Afghan immigrants. In the past month, more than a thousand Afghan immigrants have been imprisoned by the Pakistani police.

Iran and Pakistan have close relations with the Taliban government and the embassies of both countries are active in Kabul.

National reconciliation, inclusive governance, peace and stability in Afghanistan, and regional security are among the topics of discussion at the Moscow Format.

Earlier, Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, also said that the meeting will focus more on national reconciliation in Afghanistan.

The Taliban had been invited to the last Moscow format meeting in October 2021. A Taliban delegation headed by Abdul Salam Hanafi, the Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister, attended the Moscow Format.

The formation of an inclusive government was one of the main agendas of last year's meeting, which has not been implemented in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have criticised that they were not invited to this year's meeting and said that without their presence, the discussion about Afghanistan at the Moscow consultative meeting is incomplete.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that there are no secrets to discuss in the meeting and Moscow will convey the outcomes of the Moscow Format to the Taliban.