Cancel Meet Which Discusses Recognition of Taliban, Afghan Activists Urge UN Secy General

In a letter to Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, 81 Afghan activists, have called for the cancellation of the Doha meeting. The meeting is scheduled to be held on May 1 and 2 between Guterres and special envoys of various countries for Afghanistan.

The signatories of the letter said that the United Nations should not facilitate the ground for recognition of “a terrorist regime”.

According to the letter, the Taliban will not change by giving "political concessions".

Responding to widespread criticism of Afghan politicians and civil activists, a spokesperson for the UN, said that the focus of the UN Secretary General's meeting in Doha will be to coordinate the efforts of the countries' representatives for Afghanistan and send a single message to the Taliban.

The United Nations has not clarified if the issue of official recognition of the Taliban is on the agenda of the meeting and whether the representatives of the Taliban have been invited to participate in the Doha meeting.

However, the signatories of the letter, who are mainly young political and civil activists, have said that they are against "any political plan whose specific purpose is to create grounds for the international recognition of the Taliban regime".

The letter stated, "Since the illegal takeover of power by the Taliban in August 2021, they have systematically violated the basic human rights of more than thirty million Afghan citizens. Women, who constitute at least half of the country's population, have been excluded from social life.”

The signatories have expressed their anger at the recently delivered statements of Amina Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, and her "justifications" regarding the necessity of engagement with the Taliban. They have asked the United Nations to give an official explanation of Mohammed’s statements.

Earlier, Mohammed had said at Princeton University that to prevent the deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan and other decisions of the Taliban, it is necessary to engage with the group. She had expressed hopes that the first steps of the official recognition of the Taliban would be discussed at the Doha meeting.