Taliban’s Head of Political Office Meets British, Chinese Senior Officials in Doha

This will be the second visit of the Taliban’s foreign minister to Pakistan.

Pakistan is considered a traditional ally of the Taliban in Afghanistan. However, the continued deadly attacks by the Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has impacted the group’s ties with Islamabad over the recent months.

After Afghanistan’s takeover by the Taliban in August 2021, Islamabad expected the TTP to stop violence inside Pakistan due to the influence of the Afghan Taliban on the group.

The TTP and Pakistani delegations negotiated in the past 18 months with the mediation of the Taliban in Afghanistan, but recently Pakistan sees an upsurge in violence.

Islamabad has regularly said that the Afghan Taliban has not prevented the attacks of the Pakistani Taliban on Pakistani targets and that TTP has been stationed and sheltered in Afghanistan.

Diplomatic sources said that representatives of 25 countries and international organisations will attend the Doha meeting.

According to Maryam Rahmati, Afghanistan International’s correspondent in Doha, the UN-hosted meeting will be held behind closed doors, and journalists and photographers are not allowed to attend the meeting.

The United Nations has not provided much information to the media about the participants, the agenda, and even the venue of the meeting.

On Sunday, the UN spokesperson said in a statement, "On May 1 and 2, the Secretary General of the Organisation will host representatives of countries for Afghanistan to reach common views on key issues such as human rights, rights of women and girls, inclusive governance, and counterterrorism and anti-narcotics issues.”

The announcement added that the purpose of the Doha meeting is to build a consensus among the stakeholders regarding engagement with the Taliban.

The United Nations had previously rejected that there will not be any discussion regarding the official recognition of the Taliban in the Doha meeting. However, engagement with the Taliban seems to be the focus of the Doha meeting.

The Taliban has asked the participating countries that beyond engagement, they should discuss the official recognition of the Taliban.

The United Nations has not invited the Taliban to the Doha meeting.

Despite international criticism and condemnation in the Security Council, the Taliban has refused to lift the ban on the work of female staffers of the UN and other non-profit organisations in Afghanistan.

The commission asked regional and international stakeholders to avoid political and economic cooperation with the Taliban.

In a statement on Saturday, AIHRC called the recent resolution of the Security Council important. However, the rights group stressed that governments must consider human rights as a redline while maintaining their relations with the Taliban.

According to the commission, the Taliban regime uses citizens' human rights, especially women's rights, as a tool to pressurise the international community in order to gain recognition and receive humanitarian support.

The rights commission stated that the political demands and strategic goals of the powerful countries of the world and the region should not undermine human rights and especially women's rights in Afghanistan.

On Thursday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that condemned the Taliban's ban on the work of Afghan women.

In the resolution published by these women demonstrators, it has been stated that the people of Afghanistan consider the Taliban as a group which is against human rights. They said that Afghan people will not accept the Taliban rule to be imposed on their life.

This is the latest protest of Afghan women against the Taliban policies and practices who have regularly held demonstrations.

Over the past year, the Taliban continuously arrested members of the protest movements of Afghan women.

The UK ambassador to the United Nations stated that the Taliban's recent decision to ban Afghan female staffers of the UN is a clear violation of the basic principles of the United Nations Charter, including the principle of non-discrimination.

Woodward stressed that UK welcomes the recent resolution of the UN Security Council condemning the behaviour of the Taliban.

She called for immediate reversal of the Taliban’s decisions that restricts the basic rights and freedoms of women and girls in Afghanistan.

The UK ambassador to the United Nations said that her country has allocated 662 million dollars-worth of aid to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan since April 2021.

Woodward stressed that London will not abandon Afghan women and girls.

On Thursday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution condemning the Taliban's discriminatory treatment of Afghan women.

Members of the Security Council called on the Taliban to immediately end discriminatory policies against Afghan women, especially the ban on women's education and work.