Feridun Sinirlioğlu, the UN Special Coordinator for Afghanistan, arrived in Kabul two months after his appointment to the position. In a statement, the Taliban said that Sinirlioğlu met Din Mohammad Hanif, the group’s minister of economy.
This is the first visit of the UN special coordinator for Afghanistan to Kabul.
According to the Taliban’s Ministry of Economy, during his meeting with Sinirlioğlu, Hanif discussed "strengthening Afghanistan’s ties with the international community and development programmes to improve the economic situation".
The statement of the Taliban’s Ministry of Economy claimed that Sinirlioğlu and his accompanying delegation welcomed the Taliban’s "major achievements in the economic sector".
According to the statement, the UN delegation said that the solution to the current economic situation in Afghanistan is to have mutual cooperation between the Taliban and the United Nations.
On April 25, the United Nations Secretary-General appointed Feridun Sinirlioğlu as the UN special coordinator for Afghanistan.
Sinirlioglu was Türkiye’s foreign minister in 2015 and later became the country's representative to the United Nations.
Over the last two months, little was known about his activities as the UN special coordinator.
Last Saturday, sources confirmed Sinirlioğlu’s meeting with Batur Dostum, the Chairperson of the Central Council of the National Islamic Movement Party of Afghanistan. Dostum had expressed concern about the land grabbing of Uzbek and Turkmen lands by the Taliban and the relocation of the Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members in northern Afghanistan.
During his meeting with Sinirlioğlu, Batur Dostum had stressed that the settlement of TTP members and extremist groups in northern Afghanistan has increased concerns of people inside Afghanistan and the regional countries and has affected their will to engage with the Taliban.
